Front matter
Reading edition
London HEATH CRANTON, LIMITED 6 Fleet Lane E.C.4 1924
Printed in Great Britain for Heath Cranton, Ltd., by Clements Bros., Chatham
And we won’t, we simply will not face the world as we’ve made it, and our own souls as we find them, and take the responsibility. We’ll never get anywhere till we stand up man to man and face everything out, and break the old forms, but never let our pride and courage of life be broken.
D. H. LAURENCE in “Aaron’s Rod.”
CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword11
Section I.—WOMEN13
1.Women and Cats15
2.The Women of Spain19
3.The Dangerous Age29
4.The Legal Position of the Mother35
5.Problems of Birth Control37
Section II.—CHILDREN41
1.A Boy’s Misery43
2.Criminals Made in Our Nurseries49
3.The Tyranny of Parents51
4.The Superfluous Father55
5.The Perfect Mother59
6.Nobody’s Children61
7.Let Us Pension the Mothers71
8.Boy and Girl Offenders and Adult Misunderstanding73
9.New Ways of Teaching Children79
10.Difficulties and Mistakes in Sex Education87
11.Sex Instruction. The Age at which Knowledge Should be given107
12.The Myth of the Virtuous Sex113
13.Sentimental Tampering with Difficult Problems with some Remarks on Sex Favouritism117
14.The Seduction of Men123
15.Playing with Love127
Section III.—MARRIAGE AND OTHER RELATIONSHIPS131
1.Is Passionate Love the Surest Foundation for Marriage?133
2.Marriage Reform139
3.To-day’s Ideas on Marriage. Are we seeking vainly after happiness?141
4.Why Men are Unfaithful145
5.Why Wives are Unfaithful149
6.Should Doctors Tell?157
7.The Modern Wife and the Old-fashioned Husband161
8.The Temporary Gentleman and his Young Wife165
9.Is Marriage Too Easy?169
10.Passionate Friendships173
11.Conclusion—Regeneration187
INDEX189
FOREWORD
The essays here collected were written on various occasions over a considerable space of time. This will account for the diversity in the subjects and for a certain amount of restatement of my own beliefs and position.
I have not thought it advisable to attempt to alter this, since though some of the things I have said before may be repeated, the point of view and special application are in each case different.
Some of the essays have appeared already in various journals, but all have been very carefully revised and altered and the great majority entirely re-written.
In spite of the diversity of the subjects there is a common idea beneath all the essays—a common back-ground of faith. I do not know whether I am justified in my confidence that this idea—this faith is abundantly manifest. If I should try to formulate it into one short statement, I should say it was the responsibility that the old have to the young—the debt that one generation owes to the next.
In my gospel there is one commandment which may not be broken: Ye shall not hurt a little child.
C. GASQUOINE HARTLEY.
Merton Park, March, 1924.