I have called this little collection of articles which I have written
"THREE THINGS" because to me there seem to be just three essentials to
strive after in life. Truth--Common Sense and Happiness. To be able to
see the first enables us to employ the second, and so realise the
third. And in these papers I have tried to suggest some points which
may be of use to others who, like myself, are endeavouring to reason
out ideas to a good end.
How often one sees people who could be very happy, and who yet with
incredible blindness and stupidity are running their heads against
stone walls (or feather beds!) and destroying all chance of peace for
themselves, their mates, and their households!
Everything is very simple when it is analysed down to what nature
meant in the affair--and by doing this one gets a broader perspective.
For instance, nature meant one thing in the connection of man and
woman--and civilisation has grafted quite another meaning into it, and
the two things are often at war in the State called marriage! In the
chapters devoted to this subject I have tried to exploit some points
which are not generally faced, in the hope that if understood they
might help towards Happiness.
The thing which more than half of humanity seems to forget is _the end
they have in view_! They desire something really ardently, and yet
appear incapable of keeping their minds from straying into side
issues, which must logically militate against, and probably prevent,
their desire's accomplishment. This is very strange! A woman for
instance profoundly desires to retain a man's love when she sees it is
waning--but her wounded vanity causes her to use methods of reproach
and recrimination towards him, calculated certainly to defeat her end,
and accelerate his revolt.
I feel that in publishing this little collection in America I must ask
indulgence for the parts which seem to touch upon exclusively English
aspects of the subjects under discussion--because the main ideas apply
to humanity in general and not to any particular country. The paper on
Divorce is of course written from an English point of view, but its
suggestions may be of some use to those who are interested in the
question of divorce in the abstract, and are on the alert as to the
results of its facilities in America. I do not presume to offer an
opinion as to its action there; and in this paper am not making the
slightest criticism of the American divorce laws--only stating what
seems to me should rule all such questions in any country,
namely,--Common sense and consideration for the welfare of the
community.
Above all things I am an incorrigible optimist! and I truly believe
that the world is advancing in every way and that we are already in
the dawn of a new era of the understanding, and the exploitation for
our benefit of the great forces of nature. But we of the majority of
non-scientists, were until so lately sound asleep to any speculative
ideas, and just drowsed on without thinking at all, that it behooves
us now that we are awake in the new century to try to see straight and
analyse good and evil.
In my papers on the Responsibility of Motherhood I may be quite out of
touch with American ideas--but I will chance that in the hope that
some parts of them may be of service, taken broadly.
ELINOR GLYN.
PARIS, 1914.
I