Note 186 — Chapter XI

M. Nordau, “The Conventional Lies of Our Civilization.” See also P. Näcke, “Einiges zur Frauenfrage und zur sexuellen Abstinenz”—“A Contribution to the Woman’s Question and to the Question of Sexual Abstinence.” Näcke condemns this duplex morality, and demands for the woman in principle the same sexual freedom that is granted to the man.

[187] One of the most remarkable instances of free love as a popular institution was the “island custom” of the (so-called) Isle of Portland. Here, until well on into the nineteenth century, experimental cohabitation was universal, and marriage did not take place until the woman became pregnant. But if, as a result of this experimental cohabitation, “the woman does not prove with child, after a competent time of courtship, they conclude they are not destined by Providence for each other; they therefore separate; and as it is an established maxim, which the Portland women observe with great strictness, never to admit a plurality of lovers at one time, their honour is in no way tarnished. She just as soon gets another suitor (after the affair is declared to be broken off) as if she had been left a widow, or that nothing had ever happened, but that she had remained an immaculate virgin” (Hutchins, “History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset,” vol. ii., p. 820, 1868). So faithfully was this “island custom” observed that, on the one hand, during a long period no single bastard was born on the “island,” and, on the other, every marriage was fertile. But when, for the further development of the Portland stone trade, workmen from London, with the “wild love” habits of the large town, came to reside in Portland, these men took advantage of the “island custom,” and then refused to marry the girls with whom they had cohabited. Thus, in consequence of freer intercourse with the “civilized” world, the “Portland custom” has gradually fallen into desuetude. But the words I have emphasized in the quotation show how faithfully the conditions of “free love,” as defined in this work, were observed in Portland. An account of Portland, with allusions to the local practice of “free love,” will be found in Thomas Hardy’s novel, “The Well Beloved.”—Translator.

[188] A. Blaschko, “Prostitution in the Nineteenth Century,” p. 12 (Berlin, 1902).

[189] Cf. Helen Zimmern, “Mary Wollstonecraft” in Deutsche Rundschau, 1889, vol. xv., Heft 11, pp. 259-263. Consult also C. Kegan Paul, “William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries,” 2 vols. (London, 1876).

[190] “Shelley’s Poetical Works,” edited by Edward Dowden, p. 42 (Macmillan, 1891).

[191] Ibid., p. 44.

[192] Cf. the admirable critical investigation by Georg Hirth, “Goethe’s Christiane,” published in “Ways to Love,” pp. 323-366, containing new and valuable aids to our judgment of this relationship.

[193] A. Wernich, “Geographical and Medical Studies, based upon Experiences obtained in a Journey Round the World,” p. 137 (Berlin, 1878). Among the Malays of the Dutch Indies divorce is very easy; it costs only a few gulden, and is often carried out “very much to the advantage of husband and wife who are not held together by love. But it is by no means rare for a divorced couple to remarry after a certain time” (Ernst Haeckel, “Aus Insulinde, Malayische Reisebriefe”—“From the Indian Archipelago, Malay Letters of Travel”), p. 242 (Bonn, 1901).

[194] Kuno Fischer, “History of Recent Philosophy,” vol. vii., p. 135 (Heidelberg, 1898).

[195] Cf. in this connexion my pseudonymous work, “Rétif de la Bretonne: the Man, the Author, and the Reformer,” p. 500 (Berlin, 1906).

[196] Cf. George Gissing’s powerful novel, “The Odd Women.”—Translator.

[197] A brief sketch of tetragamy is also given by Schopenhauer in the fragments of his “Lecture on Philosophy” (“Schopenhauer’s Legacy,” ed. Grisebach, vol. iv., pp. 405, 406), also in the manuscript books, “Pandektä” and “Spicilegia” (op. cit., pp. 418, 419).

[198] Charles Albert, “Free Love.”—We may also allude to the more generally philosophic work by Armand Charpentier, “L’Évangile du Bonheur. Mariage. Union Libre. Amour Libre” (Paris, 1898).

[199] L. Gumplowicz, “Marriage and Free Love” (Berlin, 1902, second edition).

[200] In this connexion English readers will do well to consult Karl Pearson’s admirable “The Ethic of Freethought.” In the third or sociological section of that book there are numerous references to the subject of free love in relation to the economic structure of society. One of these will, however, for the present, suffice for quotation: “The economic independence of women will, for the first time, render it possible for the highest human relationship to become again a matter of pure affection, raised above every suspicion of restraint and every taint of commercialism.” It will be seen that Karl Pearson, like Albert, Gumplowicz, Bebel, and Socialists in general, believes that collectivism and the economic independence of women are indispensable preliminaries to a far-reaching reform of our sex relationships in the direction of free love.—Translator.

[201] I must here call attention to the fact that the celebrated philosopher Eugen Dühring, in his notable work, “The Value of Life,” pp. 155-158 (Leipzig, 1881, third edition), made a violent attack on the coercive marriage system, and demanded on ethical grounds a transformation of our amatory life in the direction of freedom and of personal love.

[202] Edward Carpenter, “Love’s Coming-of-Age,” third edition, London, 1902.

[203] Ellen Key, “Love and Marriage,” translated into German by Francis Maro (Berlin, 1904).

[204] Anton Nyström, “The Sexual Life and its Laws,” pp. 244-247 (Berlin, 1904).

[205] The speeches on this occasion were published by Helene Stöcker in her pamphlet, “The Association for the Protection of Mothers” (No. 4 of “Modern Questions of the Day,” edited by Dr. Hans Landsberg; Berlin, 1905).

[206] Unfortunately, Ruth Bré, who has played such a leading part in the history of the movement for the protection of mothers and for sexual reform, has recently gone her own way, and has founded an association of her own for the protection of mothers, which we may hope will soon be reabsorbed into the general Association. Above all, in such a province of reform as this, open as it is to attacks of every kind, unity is essential.

[207] Helene Stöcker, “Die Liebe und die Frauen”—“Love and Women” (Minden, 1906).

[208] Fr. Naumann, “Women in the New Economic Life,” published in Mutterschutz, 1906, No. 4, pp. 133-149.

[209] W. Borgius, “Mutterschafts-Rentenversicherung,” ibid., pp. 149-154.

[210] Lily Braun, “Die Mutterschaftsversicherung,” ibid., 1906, Nos. 1-3, pp. 18-24, 69-76, 110-124.

[211] M. Lischnewska, “The Economic Reform of Marriage,” ibid., No. 6, pp. 215-236.

[212] H. Fürth, “Motherhood and Marriage,” ibid., 1905, Nos. 7, 10-12, pp. 165-169, 389-395, 427-435, 483-489.

[213] The facts to which we have alluded throw a peculiar light upon the ever-renewed attack, made by certain writers who will not see, against the emancipation of women, whilst at the same time they advocate motherhood! A typical example of this is the book written by the gynecologist Max Runge, “Woman in her Sexual Individuality” (Berlin, 1896), the objectivity of which, in comparison with other hostile writings, must, however, be expressly recognized.

[214] “Office Consultations of a Solicitor,” by Severserenus, p. 70 et seq. (Hanover, 1902).

[215] The question of unmarried motherhood, sociologically of such profound importance, has recently been treated by Max Marcuse in an admirable monograph, “Unmarried Mothers” (Berlin, 1907, vol. xxvii. of the “Documents of Great Towns,” edited by Hans Ostwald). Herein we find exact data regarding the number, religion, position, profession, and characteristics of unmarried mothers, also the social and psychological causes of unmarried motherhood, and the existing and future means of caring for women in this position. The same author, in the newspaper Soziale Medizin und Hygiene, 1906, vol. i., pp. 657-667, discusses the important question of the adoption of illegitimate children. Valuable monographs concerning illegitimate children are those of Hugo Neumann, “The Illegitimate Children of Berlin,” Jena, 1900; Ottomar Spann, “Investigations Regarding the Illegitimate Population of Frankfurt-on-the-Main,” Dresden, 1906; Frieda Duensing, “The Legal Position of Illegitimate Children,” and Taube, “Illegitimate Children,” published in “The Book of the Child,” edited by Adele Schreiber, vol. ii., div. 2, pp. 57-61, 62-69 (Leipzig, 1907); the practical work hitherto effected—already extensive, but still far less than we could wish—by the Association for the Protection of Mothers has been detailed by Maria Lischnewska, in her excellent pamphlet, “The Practical Protection of Mothers” (Berlin, 1907).

[216] W. B. Stevenson, “Travels in Arauco, Chile, Peru, and Columbia, in the years 1804-1823,” vol. i., p. 174 (Weimar, 1826).

[217] Eduard Reich, “Immorality and Excess, from the Point of View of the Medical, Hygienic, Political, and Moral Sciences,” p. 127 (Neuwied and Leipzig, 1866).

[218] Apart from the study of the numerous free-love relationships of the poet Goethe, it would be interesting to make an investigation regarding his illegitimate children. Only a few years ago there died in Stützerbach one of the last illegitimate grandchildren of Goethe, a wood-cutter, a man of tall stature and proud gait, resembling in appearance and demeanour the beloved of all women. Cf. A. Trinius, “From the Mountain-World of Goethe,” published in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, No. 453, of September 6, 1906.