of illegitimate births very high, since in Berlin it is 17 per cent., and in some towns very much higher, but ante-nuptial conceptions take place in nearly half the marriages, and sometimes in the majority.  Thus in Berlin more than 40 per cent, of all legitimate firstborn children are conceived before marriage, while in some rural provinces (where the proportion of illegitimate births is lower) the percentage of marriages following ante-nuptial conceptions is much higher than in Berlin.  The conditions in rural Germany have been especially investigated by a committee of Lutheran pastors, and were set forth a few years ago in two volumes, Die Geschlecht-sittlich Verhaeltnisse im Deutschen Reiche, which are full of instruction concerning German sexual morality.  In Hanover, it is said in this work, the majority of authorities state that intercourse before marriage is the rule.  At the very least, a probe, or trial, is regarded as a matter-of-course preliminary to a marriage, since no one wishes “to buy a pig in a poke.”  In Saxony, likewise, we are told, it is seldom that a girl fails to have intercourse before marriage, or that her first child is not born, or at all events conceived, outside marriage.  This is justified as a proper proving of a bride before taking her for good.  “One does not buy even a penny pipe without trying it,” a German pastor was informed.  Around Stettin, in twelve districts (nearly half the whole), sexual intercourse before marriage is a recognized custom, and in the remainder, if not exactly a custom, it is very common, and is not severely or even at all condemned by public opinion.  In some districts marriage immediately follows pregnancy.  In the Dantzig neighborhood, again, according to the Lutheran Committee, intercourse before marriage occurs in more than half the cases, but marriage by no means always follows pregnancy.  Nearly all the girls who go as servants have lovers, and country people in engaging servants sometimes tell them that at evening and night they may do as they like.  This state of things is found to be favorable to conjugal fidelity.  The German peasant girl, as another authority remarks (E.H.  Meyer, Deutsche Volkskunde, 1898, pp. 154, 164), has her own room; she may receive her lover; it is no great shame if she gives herself to him.  The number of women who enter legal marriage still virgins is not large (this refers more especially to Baden), but public opinion protects them, and such opinion is unfavorable to the disregard of the responsibilities involved by sexual relationships.  The German woman is less chaste before marriage than her French or Italian sister.  But, Meyer adds, she is probably more faithful after marriage than they are.

It is assumed by many that this state of German morality as it exists to-day is a new phenomenon, and the sign of a rapid national degeneration.  That is by no means the case.  In this connection we may accept the evidence of Catholic priests, who,