Sex.  H. Munsterberg, “Sex-Education” (in Psychology and Social Sanity).  H. G. Wells, “Divorce” (in Social Forces in England and America).  C. J. Hawkins, Will the Home Survive?  Biblical World, vol. 43, p. 33.  International Journal of Ethics, vol. 17, p. 181.  For the data:  United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Reports on Marriage and Divorce.  Publications of the National League for the Protection of the Family (Secretary S. W. Dike, Auburndale, Massachusetts) and of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis (105 West 40th Street, New York).  Howard, matrimonial institutions.  Sutherland, origin and growth of the moral instinct of the Moral Instinct, chaps. vii, ix.  Lestourneaux, evolution of marriage.

CHAPTER XVIII

FELLOWSHIP, LOYALTY, AND LUXURY

Every man has to solve the problem of how far he will live for his smaller, personal self, and how far for that larger self that includes the interests of others.  The general principles involved we have discussed in chapter xi; we may now proceed to consider their application to the concrete situations in which we find ourselves.  What social relationships impose claims upon us?

(1) The relations of husband and wife and of parenthood are most sacred and exacting, because they are voluntarily assumed, and because the need and possibilities of help are here greatest.  A man or woman may without odium remain free from these obligations; but once they have made the vows that initiate the dual life, once they have brought a helpless child into the world, neither may evade the consequent responsibilities.  If undertaken at all, these duties must be conscientiously fulfilled; and whatever sacrifices are necessary must, as a matter of course, and ungrudgingly, be made.

(2) Next in inviolability to these claims are those of father and mother, brother and sister, and other near relatives.  Involuntary as these relations are, the natural piety that accepts the burdens they entail must not be allowed to grow dim.  Those nearest of kin are the natural supports and helpers of the weak and dependent; and though patience and resources be severely taxed, it is better to let blood ties continue to involve obligation than to permit the selfish irresponsibility of a freer and more individualistic society.  Much provocation can be borne by remembering “She is my mother”; “He is my brother”; after all, their interests are ours, and our lives are impoverished, as well as theirs, if we ignore them.