she may not pursue, what places she may not visit, what people she may not know, what books she may not read.  He assumes to control her, even in personal matters having no direct concern with himself, by virtue of the old masculine prerogative of force which placed a woman under the hand, as the ancient patriarchal legists termed it, of a man.  It is, however, becoming more and more widely recognized that such a part is not suited to the modern man.  The modern man, as Rosa Mayreder has pointed out in a thoughtful essay,[292] is no longer equipped to play this domineering part in relation to his wife.  The “noble savage,” leading a wild life on mountain and in forest, hunting dangerous beasts and scalping enemies when necessary, may occasionally bring his club gently and effectively on to the head of his wife, even, it may be, with grateful appreciation on her part.[293] But the modern man, who for the most part spends his days tamely at a desk, who has been trained to endure silently the insults and humiliations which superior officials or patronizing clients may inflict upon him, this typical modern man is no longer able to assume effectually the part of the “noble savage” when he returns to his home.  He is indeed so unfitted for the part that his wife resents his attempts to play it.  He is gradually recognizing this, even apart from any consciousness of the general trend of civilization.  The modern man of ideas recognizes that, as a matter of principle, his wife is entitled to equality with himself; the modern man of the world feels that it would be both ridiculous and inconvenient not to accord his wife much the same kind of freedom which he himself possesses.  And, moreover, while the modern man has to some extent acquired feminine qualities, the modern woman has to a corresponding extent acquired masculine qualities.

Brief and summary as the preceding discussion has necessarily been, it will have served to bring us face to face with the central fact in the sexual morality which the growth of civilization has at the present day rendered inevitable:  personal responsibility.  “The responsible human being, man or woman, is the centre of modern ethics as of modern law;” that is the conclusion reached by Hobhouse in his discussion of the evolution of human morality.[294] The movement which is taking place among us to liberate sexual relationships from an excessive bondage to fixed and arbitrary regulations would have been impossible and mischievous but for the concomitant growth of a sense of personal responsibility in the members of the community.  It could not indeed have subsisted for a single year without degenerating into license and disorder.  Freedom in sexual relations involves mutual trust and that can only rest on a basis of personal responsibility.  Where there can be no reliance on personal responsibility there can be no freedom.  In most fields of moral action this sense of personal responsibility is acquired at a fairly early stage of social progress.  Sexual