In societies in that rapid state of change in which our modern societies
find themselves, where not merely each decade, but each year, and almost
day brings new forces and conditions to bear on life, not only is the
amount of suffering and social rupture, which all rapid, excessive, and
sudden change entails on an organism, inevitable; but, the new conditions,
acting at different angles of intensity on the different individual members
composing the society, according to their positions and varying
intelligence, are producing a society of such marvellous complexity and
dissimilarity in the different individual parts, that the intensest rupture
and disco-ordination between individuals is inevitable; and sexual ideals
and relationships must share in the universal condition.

In a primitive society (if a somewhat prolix illustration may be allowed)
where for countless generations the conditions of life had remained
absolutely unchanged; where for ages it had been necessary that all males
should employ themselves in subduing wild beasts and meeting dangerous
foes, polygamy might universally have been a necessity, if the race were to
exist and its numbers be kept up; and society, recognising this, polygamy
would be an institution universally approved and submitted to, however much
suffering it entailed. If food were scarce, the destruction of superfluous
infants and of the aged might also always have been necessary for the good
of the individuals themselves as well as of society, and the whole society
would acquiesce in it without any moral doubt. If an eclipse of the sun
had once occurred in connection with the appearance of a certain new
insect, they mighty universally regard that insect as a god causing it; and
ages might pass without anything arising to disprove their belief. There
would be no social or religious problem; and the view of one man would be
the view of all men; and all would be more or less in harmony with the
established institution and customs.