legal and religious aspects of marriage are not the primary ones. A
marriage may be legal--and miserable; religious--and diseased. The law
pays no heed to the suitability of the partners, and the Church takes no
regard for their health. Nevertheless, the basis of marriage is obviously
mating, or sexual intercourse. Without that there is no marriage, and with
it come not merely health and happiness but life itself. Cut out sexual
intercourse, and society becomes extinct in one generation. Every
generation must, of necessity, pass through the bodies of its women; there
is no other way of obtaining entry into the world. Hence, it is clearly
the duty of women to understand precisely the processes involved, from
beginning to end.

With the lower animals sexual intercourse is desired only seasonally, and
only for the purpose of reproduction. With the higher animals--man and
women--sexual intercourse is desired more or less continuously throughout
adult life, and desired much more for romantic than for reproductive
considerations--that is, for the sake of health and happiness rather than
for the sake of procreation only. A few women, and still fewer men, have
no sexual desires. To them sexual abstinence seems more natural than
sexual satisfaction. But for the majority of mankind and womankind--for
all normally healthy men and women--there is this continuous desire to be
happily mated.

For the sake of health and happiness there is everything to be said for
early marriage, but better late than never.[A] The chief obstacles to
early and happy marriage are financial, and these would largely disappear
if women were able to control fecundity. The chief obstacles to healthy
marriage are the venereal diseases, and these could be extirpated in two
or three generations if sexual cleanliness was properly taught to all
adults, and if promiscuous intercourse was properly regulated during the