of subjugating natural impulses, except when those impulses are weak, and no power at all of subjugating them permanently.  Civilization involves the growth of foresight, and of self-control in both sexes; but it is foolish to attempt to place on these fine and ultimate outgrowths of civilization a strain which they could never bear.  How foolish it is has been shown, once and for all, by Lea in his admirable History of Sacerdotal Celibacy.

Moreover, when we compare the respective aptitudes of men and women in this particular region, it must be remembered that men possess a greater power of forethought and self-control than women, notwithstanding the modesty and reserve of women.  The sexual sphere is immensely larger in women, so that when its activity is once aroused it is much more difficult to master or control. (The reasons were set out in detail in the discussion of “The Sexual Impulse in Women” in volume iii of these Studies.) It is, therefore, unfair to women, and unduly favors men, when too heavy a premium is placed on forethought and self-restraint in sexual matters.  Since women play the predominant part in the sexual field their natural demands, rather than those of men, must furnish the standard.

With the realization of the moral responsibility of women the natural relations of life spring back to their due biological adjustment.  Motherhood is restored to its natural sacredness.  It becomes the concern of the woman herself, and not of society nor of any individual, to determine the conditions under which the child shall be conceived.  Society is entitled to require that the father shall in every case acknowledge the fact of his paternity, but it must leave the chief responsibility for all the circumstances of child-production to the mother.  That is the point of view which is now gaining ground in all civilized lands both in theory and in practice.[311]

FOOTNOTES: 

[257] E.g., E. Belfort Bax, Outspoken Essays, p. 6.

[258] Such reasons are connected with communal welfare.  “All immoral acts result in communal unhappiness, all moral acts in communal happiness,” as Prof.  A. Mathews remarks, “Science and Morality,” Popular Science Monthly, March, 1909.

[259] See Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, vol. i, pp. 386-390, 522.

[260] Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, pp. 9, 159; also the whole of Ch.  VII.  Actions that are in accordance with custom call forth public approval, actions that are opposed to custom call forth public resentment, and Westermarck powerfully argues that such approval and such resentment are the foundation of moral judgments.

[261] This is well recognized by legal writers (e.g., E.A.  Schroeder, Das Recht in der Geschlechtlichen Ordnung, p. 5).