第 59 节
作者:暖暖      更新:2021-02-24 23:00      字数:9322
  ed; the stories of Pagan times; of the Middle Ages and of the present day; as well as everyday human experience; show that the male certainly has not lived up to his part of the bargain。 Legalized prostitution in most countries; illegal prostitution in the United States and England; in addition to the enormous amount of clandestine relationships; are a sufficient commentary on the results。 The increasing divorce rate; the feminist movement; the legalizing of the 〃illegitimate〃 child in Norway and Sweden and the almost certain arrival of similar laws in all countries indicate a softer attitude toward sex restrictions。 The rapidly increasing age of marriage means simply that continence will be more and more difficult; for I am not one of those who believe that the repression of this vital instinct is without harm。 Continence is socially necessary; but beyond a certain age it is physically and mentally harmful。 Man is thus placed on the horns of a dilemma from which it will take the greatest wisdom and the finest humanity to extricate him。 But I cannot lay claim to any part of the knowledge and ability necessary to formulate the plan。 Let us at least be candid; let us not say grandiloquently that the sexual urge can be indefinitely repressed without harm to the average individual。 We may safely assert that there are people; men and women both; to whom the sex impulses are vague and of little force; but to the great majority; at least of men; sex desire is almost a hunger; and unsatisfied it brings about a restlessness and dissatisfaction that enters into all the mental life。 On what basis society will meet this situation I do not pretend to know; but this is certain;that all over the civilized world there is apparent an organizing rebellion against the social impediment to sexual satisfaction。 For it must be remembered that sexual satisfaction is not alone naked desire。 It is thatbut sublimated into finer things as well。 It is the desire for stability of affection; for a sympathetic beloved; an outlet for emotion; a longing for respectable unitary status。 The unit of respectable human life is the married couple; the girl wants that social recognition; and so does her man。 Both yearn to cast off from their old homes and start a new one; as an initial step in successful living。 The thought of childrena little form in a little bed; and the man and woman gazing in an ecstasy of pride and affection upon itmakes all other pleasures seem unworthy and gives to the ache for intimacy a high moral sanction。 This brings us to the point where we must consider those characteristics that make up domesticity and homekeeping。 Early impressions and the consistent teaching of literature; stage; press and religion have given to the home a semi…sacred character; which is one of the great components of the desire to marry; especially for women。 The home is; in the minds of most of those who enter into marriage; a place owned; peculiarly possessed; and it offers freedom from the restraints of society and the inhibitions of ceremony and custom。 Both the man and woman like to think that here is the place where their love can find free expression; where she will care for him and he will provide for her; and where their children can grow in beauty; intelligence and moral worth under their guidance。 But this is only the sentimental side of their thought; the part they give freest expression to because it is most respectable and 〃nice。〃 In the background of their minds is the desire for ownership; the wish to say; 〃This is mine and here I rule。〃 Into that comes the ideal that the stability of society is involved and the homekeeper is its most important citizen; but when we study the real evolution of the home; study the laws pertaining to the family; we find that the husband and father had a little kingdom with wife and children as subjects; and that only gradually has there come from that monarchical idea the more democratic conception cherished to…day。 Men and women may be considered as domestic or non…domestic。 The domestic type of man is ordinarily 〃steady〃 in purpose and absorbed more in work than in the seeking of pleasure; is either strongly inhibited sexually or else rather easily satisfied; cherishes the ideal of respectability highly; is conventional and habituated; usually has a strong property feeling and is apt to have a decided paternal feeling。 He may of course be seclusive and apt to feel the constraints of contact with others as wearying and unsatisfactory; he is not easily bored or made restless。 All this is a broad sketch; even the most domestic find in the home a certain amount of tyranny and monotony; they yearn now and then for adventure and new romance and think of the freedom of their bachelor days with regret over their passing。 They may decide that married home life is best; but the choice is not without difficulty and is accompanied by an irrepressible; though hidden dissatisfaction。 On the whole; however; the domestic man finds the home a haven of relief and a source of pleasurable feeling。 The non…domestic man may be of a dozen types。 Perhaps he is incurably romantic and hates the thought of settling down and putting away for good the search for the perfect woman。 Perhaps he is uninhibted sexually or over…excitable in this respect; and is therefore restless and unfaithful。 He may be bored by monotony; a restless seeker of new experiences and new work; possessed by the devils of wanderlust。 He may be an egoist incapable of the continuous self…sacrifice and self…abnegation demanded by the home;quarrelsome and selfish。 Sometimes he is wedded to an ideal of achievement or work and believes that he travels best who travels alone。 Often in these days of late marriage he has waited until he could 〃afford〃 to marry and then finds that his habits chain him to single life。 Or he may be an unconventional non…believer in the home and marriage; though these are really rare。 The drinker; the roue; the wanderer; the selfish; the nonconventional; the soarer; the restless; the inefficient and the misogynist all make poor husbands and fathers and find the home a burden too crippling to be borne。 One of the outstanding figures of the past is the domestic woman; yearning for a home; assiduously and constantly devoted to it; her husband and her numerous children。 Fancy likes to linger on this old…fashioned housewife; arising in the early morning and from that time until her bedtime content to bake; cook; wash; dust; clean; sew; nurse and teach; imagining no other career possible or proper for her sex; leading a life of self… sacrifice; toil and devotion。 Poet; novelist; artist; and clergyman have immortalized her; and men for the most part cherish this type as their mother and dream of it as the ideal wife。 Perhaps (and probably) this woman rebelled in her heart against her drudgery and dreamed of better things; perhaps she regretted the quickly past youth and dreaded the frequent child…bearing。 Whether she did or not; the appearance of a strongly non…domestic type is part of the history of the latter nineteenth century and the early twentieth。 The non…domestic women are; like their male prototypes; of many kinds; and it would be idle to enumerate them。 There is the kind of woman that 〃has a career;〃 using this term neither sarcastically nor flatteringly。 The successful artist of whatever sortpainter; musician; actresshas usually been quite spoiled for domesticity by the reward of money and adulation given her。 Nowhere is the lack of proportion of our society so well demonstrated as in the hysterical praise given to this kind of woman; and naturally she cannot consent to the subordination and seclusion of the home。 Then there is the young business woman; efficient; independent; proud of her place in the bustle and stir of trade。 She is quite willing to marry and often makes an admirable mother and wife; but sometimes she finds the menial character of housework; its monotony and dependence too much for her。 The feminist aglow with equality and imbued with too vivid a feeling of sex antagonism may marry and bear children; but she rarely becomes a fireside companion of the type the average man idealizes。 Then the vain; the frivolous; the sexually uncontrolled;these too make poor choice for him who has set his heart on a wife who will cook his meals; darn his stockings and care for the children。 To be non…domestic is a privilege or a right we cannot deny to women; nor is there condemnation in the term;it is merely a summary characterization。 Though to remain single is to be freer than to be married and domestic; yet the race will always have far more domestic characters。 These alone will bear children; and from them the racial characters will flow rather than from the exceptional and deviate types; unless the home disappears in the form of some other method of raising children。 After all; the home is a costly; inefficient method of family life unless it has advantages for childhood。 This it decidedly has; though we have bad homes aplenty and foolish ones galore。 Yet there is for the child a care; and more important; an immersion in love and tender feeling; possible in no other way。 We should lose the sacred principles of motherhood and fatherhood; the only example o