conception.  During the same period the illegitimate births numbered 14,779; there were, therefore, 28,145 cases of conception amongst unmarried women; in 13,366 instances marriage preceded the birth of the child, so that the children were legitimatized in rather more than forty-seven cases out of one hundred.  A study of the figures of births of ante-nuptial conception makes it obvious that in a very large number of instances pre-marital intercourse is not an anticipation of marriage already arranged, but that the marriages are forced upon the parties, and would not be entered into were it not for the condition of the woman” (cf.  Powys, Biometrika, vol. i, 1901-2, p. 30).  That marriage should be, as Coghlan puts it, “forced upon the parties,” is not, of course, desirable in the general moral interests, and it is also a sign of imperfect moral responsibility in the parties themselves.

The existence of such a state of things, in a young country belonging to a part of the world where the general level of prosperity, intelligence, morality and social responsibility may perhaps be said to be higher than in any other region inhabited by people of white race, is a fact of the very first significance when we are attempting to forecast the direction in which civilized morality is moving.

It is sometimes said, or at least implied, that in this movement women are taking only a passive part, and that the initiative lies with men who are probably animated by a desire to escape the responsibilities of marriage.  This is very far from being the case.

The active part taken by German girls in sexual matters is referred to again and again by the Lutheran pastors in their elaborate and detailed report.  Of the Dantzig district it is said “the young girls give themselves to the youths, or even seduce them.”  The military manoeuvres are frequently a source of unchastity in rural districts.  “The fault is not merely with the soldiers, but chiefly with the girls, who become half mad as soon as they see a soldier,” it is reported from the Dresden district.  And in summarizing conditions in East Germany the report states:  “In sexual wantonness girls are not behind the young men; they allow themselves to be seduced only too willingly; even grown-up girls often go with half-grown youths, and girls frequently give themselves to several men, one after the other.  It is by no means always the youth who effects the seduction, it is very frequently the girls who entice the youth to sexual intercourse; they do not always wait till the men come to their rooms, but will go to the men’s rooms and await them in their beds.  With this inclination to sexual intercourse, it is not surprising that many believe that after sixteen no girl is a virgin.  Unchastity among the rural laboring classes is universal, and equally pronounced in both sexes” (op. cit., vol. i, 218).

Among women of the educated classes