in comparison with that of a husband, is morally much more weighty, and should be more severely punished legally. The unfaithful wife dishonors not only herself, but also her husband and her family, not to speak of the possibility of pater incertus. Natural instinct and social position favor unfaithfulness on the part of a husband, while the wife is afforded much protection. In the case of an unmarried woman, sexual intercourse is something quite different from what it is in an unmarried man. Of a single man society demands decency; of a woman, also chastity. In the cultivated social life of to-day, woman, occupying a sexual position and concerning herself in the interests of society, can only be thought of as a wife.
The aim and ideal of woman, even when she is sunken in the mire of vice, is, and remains, marriage. Woman, as Mantegazza justly remarks, desires not only satisfaction of her sexual feeling, but also protection and support for herself and her children. A man of right feeling, no matter how sensual he may be, demands a wife that has been, and is, chaste. The emblem and ornament of a woman seeking this, her only worthy purpose in life, is modesty. Mantegazza finely characterizes modesty as “one of the forms of psychical self-respect” in woman. This is not the place for anthropological and historical consideration of this, the most beautiful attribute of woman. Probably, feminine modesty is an hereditarily evolved product of the development of civilization.[1]
In remarkable contrast with it, there is occasional exposition of physical charms, conventionally sanctioned by the law of fashion, in which even the most discreet maiden allows herself to indulge in the ball-room. The reasons which lead to this display are evident. Fortunately the modest girl is as little conscious of them as of the reason for the occasionally recurring mode of making certain portions of the body more prominent (panniers); to say nothing of corsets, etc.
- ↑ Westermarck (op. cit., p. 211), after a careful review of the evidence, says: “These facts appear to prove that the feeling of shame, far from being the original cause of man’s covering his body, is, on the contrary, a result of this custom; and that the covering, if not used as a protection from climate, owes its origin, at least in a great many cases, to the desire of men and women to make themselves attractive.”—Trans.
