THE MORALITY OF WOMAN
THE MORALITY OF
WOMAN
AND OTHER ESSAYS
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION FROM THE SWEDISH
OF
ELLEN KEY
BY
MAMAH BOUTON BORTHWICK
THE RALPH FLETCHER SEYMOUR CO.
FINE ARTS BUILDING
CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1911
BY
THE RALPH FLETCHER SEYMOUR CO.
CHICAGO
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CONTENTS
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THE MORALITY OF WOMAN
(TRANSLATED FROM THE SWEDISH)
"The law condemns to be hung those whocounterfeit banknotes; a measure necessaryfor the public welfare. But he who counterfeitslove, that is to say: he who, for athousand other reasons but not for love,unites himself to one whom he does notlove and creates thus a family circleunworthy of that name—does not heindeed commit a crime whose extent andincalculable results in the present and inthe future, disseminate far more terribleunhappiness than the counterfeiting of millionsof banknotes!"
C. J. L. Almquist.
The simplest formula for thenew conception of morality,which is beginning to beopposed to moral dogma stillesteemed by all society, butespecially by women, might be summedup in these words:
Love is moral even without legal marriage,but marriage is immoral withoutlove.[ 6 ]
The customary objection to this tenetis that those who propose it forget allother ethical duties and legitimate feelingsin order to make the sex relationship thecenter of existence, and love the soledecisive point of view in questions concerningthis relationship. But if weexcept the struggle for existence—whichindeed must be called not a relationship oflife but a condition of life—what thencan be more central for man, than a conditiondecreed by the laws of earthly life—thecause of his own origin? Can oneimagine a moment which penetrates moredeeply his whole being?
That many men live content withoutthe happiness of love, that others afterthey attain it seek a new end for theiractivity, proves nothing against the truthof the experience that for men in generalthe erotic relation between man andwoman becomes the deepest life determiningfactor, whether negatively, becausethey are deprived of this relation orbecause they formed it unhappily; or positively,because they have found therein thefullness of life.[ 7 ]
The depreciation for mankind of thesignificance of the sex relation and of thesignificance of love in the sex relationbrings into it all the immorality st