Without pretending to exhaust the subject, I have said enough to make
it clear that the moment we lose the desire to defend our present
matrimonial and family arrangements, there will be no difficulty in
making out an overwhelming case against them. No doubt until then we
shall continue to hold up the British home as the Holy of Holies in the
temple of honorable motherhood, innocent childhood, manly virtue, and
sweet and wholesome national life. But with a clever turn of the hand
this holy of holies can be exposed as an Augean stable, so filthy that
it would seem more hopeful to burn it down than to attempt to sweep
it out. And this latter view will perhaps prevail if the idolaters of
marriage persist in refusing all proposals for reform and treating those
who advocate it as infamous delinquents. Neither view is of any use
except as a poisoned arrow in a fierce fight between two parties
determined to discredit each other with a view to obtaining powers of
legal coercion over one another.