[80:1] In order to guard myself from possible misunderstanding, I would
wish to give the following explanation: the chief section of this essay
on Marriage is devoted to praise of the Jewish ideal of marriage as a
religious duty. It does not profess to examine the detailed working out
of the ideal in connection with the definite regulations of traditional
Judaism. That working out is, naturally, to the modern mind more or less
faulty. It is as an ideal that I give it: an ideal of service and
dedication that I want to be carried into English marriage, and to serve
the needs of our national life. I would, however, make it clear that the
detailed proposals put forward by me in the essays that follow have no
connection with Judaism: no one of them could possibly be considered to
have any such connection, except the proposal for facilitated divorce,
but my proposal in that particular connection (as will be seen in the
next essay) is hedged by restrictions, suggested by present-day
circumstances.
_Third Essay_