To childhood, helpless and beautiful, we owe marriage and all that growth of morality which is gradually making us really civilized.
The basis of all real growth is altruism; and altruism, the inclination to think more of others than of yourself, came into the world through the cradle.
We owe such civilization as we have acquired to children.
"A softened pressure of an uncouth hand, a human gleam in an almost animal eye, an endearment in an inarticulate voice—feeble things enough. Yet in these faint awakenings lay the hope of the human race." ——
The influence of childhood has transformed mere animal attraction into unselfish affection. It has substituted family life for savage life. The interests of childhood demand that marriage and its responsibilities be held sacred.
Duty to future generations demands that divorce be made difficult and considered a misfortune.
Marriage, brought into the world through the influence of children, should be dissolved only with due regard for the interests of children. ——
An unhappy marriage is earth's worst affliction. Quite true.
But it is not affliction wasted.
Examples are needed to warn the young against the matrimonial recklessness which underlies most unhappy marriages.
Unhappy wives and husbands are human light-houses—lonely, but useful.