SOURCE: "Knowledge and Morals," in Scientific American Supplement, Vol. LXXV, No. 1946, April 19, 1913, pp. 246-47.

Ellen Key, the famous Swedish writer, in her masterpieces Love and Ethics and Love and Marriage, claims that to the loveless marriages, to the narrow, medieval conventionalism of society that condones such marriages and places the ban of social ostracism upon the unfortunate woman who through love has become a mother out of wedlock, and at the same time gives social recognition to the man, the fellow participator in the crime, and to those individuals who console themselves with the baser substitutes for love, to all of these are due the distorted social conditions and evils of the present day.

She furthermore claims that, inasmuch as sex instinct is the primal force in life about which all other forces revolve and on which all issues depend, all forces, such as will, judgment, reason, as well as all issues, even society, should subserve to the sex instinct. Then there will be no more unhappy marriages, no more divorces, no more social evil; then will it be possible to create a more highly developed race of human beings. In other words, when soul mate finds soul mate, mutual recognition taking place by reason of the sex instinct, then must society and the Almighty recognize such a union, in spite of the Seventh Commandment, that a more perfect race may be created.

"Love can exist without marriage, but marriage cannot exist without love." She maintains that she does not advocate "free love"; that her philosophy is the mean between the two extremes of the loveless marriage, legal prostitution, and free love, illegal prostitution. She insists that her philosophy requires no ceremony to make love lasting, for the fetters of her philosophy are more binding than any words pronounced by a minister of Christ, because her philosophy permits of but one supreme love in a lifetime.

Ellen Key may truly be classed as the propounder of a philosophy which, though secretly believed in and followed by the more daring of womankind and always advocated by certain types of men to gain their ends with women since the beginning of time, would make Socrates, the founder of philosophy and likewise of the purest code of morals after Christ, turn in his grave!

In her attempt to reveal woman's nature, in her endeavor to find a remedy for the sex evils of the age, in her effort to adjust woman to the changing conditions and yet not have her efface herself or her God-given duties in her own sphere, Ellen Key has offered this love philosophy to perplexed woman as a solution for her own problems and incidentally for those of man, and she has offered society an immoral and most decidedly impractical panacea for its ills. To meet these changing conditions, woman's chastity must undergo a revaluation, and this revaluation is nothing more nor less than old-fashioned adultery, for the sole purpose of gratifying the sex instinct, even as do the beasts of the field. Ellen Key has not offered her disciples any other crown of glory here—certainly none in the hereafter—than transitory physical happiness—there could be no mental or moral; and as for compensation for the loss of their own self-respect and the respect of their fellow beings, to say nothing of that of a Higher Power, evidently they are left to work out their own salvation.

If the mother of Alexander Hamilton had voiced her inmost thoughts before she died, would she have said that the revaluation of her chastity compensated her for all that she gave up? Here was a woman who, according to the laws then extant in the West Indies, could not be divorced. She loved this Hamilton and he loved her and they lived together as man and wife—"one supreme love in a life-time," according to Ellen Key. He was an ideal lover but he did not prove an ideal husband. The prosaic of life entered in upon the love dream, as it always has and always will, and the result of their awakening to the commonplaces of life was the shattering of their love dream, and man-fashion, Hamilton left the woman he had seduced to bear the brunt of the disgrace alone. And here is one great flaw in Ellen Key's philosophy—she does not take into account the practical, everyday side of marriage, she deals only with the ideal; and she also overlooks the fact that after the first few weeks or months of wild abandon, this same practical element becomes predominant; she also ignores the fact that, whereas passion generally endures throughout married life, love does not, unless fed by the constant fires of variety, congeniality and mutual understanding.

If the victims of Aaron Burr could speak, what tales of anguish and sorrow would they not reveal! And yet they revalued their chastity, according to Ellen Key!

Dolly Madison, in the First Lady of the Land, shows that she values her chastity too highly to intrust it even in wedlock to a libertine. And yet her love for him would, in Ellen Key's estimation, have justified her in marrying him. Here is another flaw in her philosophy—she does not take into consideration the fact that men must be fit to assume the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood, if a more highly developed race of human beings is to be created. Dolly Madison had strength of character enough to make physical attraction subservient to judgment, because she knew that she did not dare to intrust herself and her probable offspring to a roué. In other words, she had the "betterment of the species and the good of humanity at heart as well as her own happiness."

That there are so many loveless marriages, so many disappointing ones, so many divorces and so many affinities, shows that there is something radically wrong with the system of marriage; but the fault is not in the institution itself, it is in the woeful lack of preparation and education, mental, moral and physical, of the contracting parties. And those who are directly responsible for the present chaos are the parents, for bringing up their children in ignorance, and indirectly the state for allowing all sorts of promiscuous and unregulated marriages. But in spite of the chaos, there is a way out that will eventually lead to peace and order in the state marital. However, this way does not lie through the destruction of marriage as an institution, as Ellen Key would have us believe, but in the preservation and upbuilding of this sacred institution through education.

By making sex instinct the controlling force in life instead of reason and judgment, by placing the sensual above all moral and social obligations, Ellen Key is not only not solving the sex problems and eradicating the sex evils of the age, but she is paving the way for a more licentious free love than we have at present.

Enlarging the scope of any evil can never eradicate that evil nor even lessen it, any more than the willful spreading of a disease can check the ravages of that disease. Neither will it help matters to call that evil by another name for the purpose of gilding it. The only way to circumvent any evil is (1) to get at the underlying causes; (2) to make a careful study of the conditions that engender such an evil and cause it to flourish; (3) to eradicate the obnoxious conditions; and (4) to supply a practical and effectual remedy.

The cause of the sex evils of the present day is not, as Ellen Key would have us believe, the ignorance of the existence of passion, or sex instinct, or of its primal purpose, but the causes are (1) the ignorance of the difference between love and passion; (2) the inability to control this force passion, so that love, which is passion regenerate, may come into its own; (3) the ignorance of the elements of real love that must be the foundation of any lasting marriage, such as respect, congeniality, etc.; (4) the ignorance of the mental, moral and physical requirements that are necessary for the happiness and well-being of all who contemplate matrimony and parenthood; (5) the ignorance of the importance of the prenatal period in molding the disposition, features, character, of the prospective child and future citizen; (6) the ignorance of the care of the child and its proper bringing up; (7) the ignorance of the derogatory influence, mentally, morally and physically, of hereditary taints of insanity and sexual diseases upon the offspring, even unto the third and fourth generation.

The conditions which engender these evils and cause them to flourish are (1) the unwillingness of parents to assume the responsibilities of parenthood and instruct their children in the meaning of life and in all matters pertaining thereto, instead of letting them pick up their information on the streets, in alleys, or in even more objectionable places, from all sorts of malicious sources, thereby causing them to get a distorted view of life and placing them in the way of every kind of moral danger; (2) the false modesty and fear of criticism that keeps teachers, superintendents and school boards, especially in the smaller cities, towns and villages, from insisting that graded courses in sex hygiene, scientific mating and parenthood be a part of every school curriculum from the kindergarten to the senior year of high school—the course in sex hygiene used in some of the high schools, while it is a step in the right direction, is by no means comprehensive enough; (3) the prudishness or thoughtlessness of otherwise public spirited citizens that prevents their urging through their respective congressmen and assemblymen laws that will provide for comprehensive and compulsory sex instruction in all State universities, public and parochial schools and an additional course for parents; (4) the indifference of city, State and Federal governments toward the future welfare of citizens and nation, by not taking the initiative in providing laws for the temporary control and ultimate prevention of the social evil, the marriage and divorce evils, and the diseases attendant upon these evils; (5) the lack of co-operation between the churches in regard to these evils and their lack of provision for warding them off; (6) the hesitancy on the part of religious institutions and organizations generally, to add a course in sex hygiene to their religious curriculum; (7) there are no courses in the science of life in our higher institutions of learning; (8) there is no Department of Eugenics at Washington to demand certain standards for qualification for matrimony; to provide for universal education so that these standards may be attained; to provide medical attendance in all vice districts in all localities until such districts can be entirely eliminated; to investigate the economic causes for vice and to eradicate them; to put an end to the white salve traffic as England is doing; to institute State matrimonial bureaus on the French principle, with an added department for fallen women, and also one for the control of sexual diseases on the German principle; to force pre-marital medical examination in every city and State in the Union; to establish a single standard of morals by providing severe, laws for the masculine offenders; to make race breeding a matter of scientific importance and national issue as is the case in some of the leading countries of Europe.

These obnoxious conditions can be eradicated and the evil greatly lessened, if the intelligent people, irrespective of class, creed or politics or nationality, will unite in a nationwide crusade, well organized and co-operative, against these conditions. The ensign of this crusade must be knowledge, and the weapons universal education in the science of life, and these weapons must be wielded by government, clergy and laity. Marriage must no longer be considered a haphazard state of deliverance, but a business into which both parties must put the best they have in health, morals, love, responsibility, etc., so that the profits, happiness and noble offspring may be the highest possible—an institution with a firm economic basis together with lofty ideals, which can only be preserved as its participants are duly qualified mentally, morally and physically. The knowledge of the science of life—or how to be born, how to grow up, how to love, how to marry, how to create and how to rear—will provide this qualification, just as it will cure the sex evils and distorted conditions of the age.

"Knowledge is power and power is life!" Never was there truer maxim and never did maxim more aptly fit the case in hand. It was the knowledge of the ancients that made possible the almost universal tendency toward education in science and the arts in this present day, and it was the knowledge and perseverance of the few that eventually lifted the veil of ignorance of the Middle Ages and paved the way for modern achievement; and it is the knowledge of the scientists and students of humanity regarding the awful consequences to individual and nation of these unchecked sex evils that is arousing them to the necessity of providing a practical and lasting cure for these sex evils as the root of all other evils; and it will be knowledge, discriminate at first because of prejudice, and gradually universal, as these narrow prejudices are overcome and the Science of Life takes its rightful place in the home along with the other moral and material guides that properly belong in man's household, that will make woman value her chastity too highly to become a mother out of wedlock or to intrust it in wedlock to a libertine, fit or unfit. It is knowledge that will eventually put the ban of social ostracism on the double standard of morals, a process already begun in Queen Mary's Court; it is also knowledge gleaned from the pages of science of life that will reveal to man the important relation of the trinity, mind and body and soul, to matrimony, which is virtually the mental, moral and physical union of one man and one woman in holy wedlock for the purpose of continuing the race; and it is this same knowledge that will make possible the conservation of energy of both sexes for the entrance into "the most holy thing in nature," marriage, and through marriage, the creation of a perfect race of human beings. It is knowledge that will teach man to choose his mate, not by the sex instinct alone, but by love, of which sex instinct is a part, plus congeniality, wherein respect and morals shall also have their say. It is knowledge that will give man a realizing sense of the necessity of a proper mental, moral and physical condition at the time of generation—for the child is the instantaneous photograph of the condition of the father at this time—and it is knowledge that will compel woman to give heed to her mental, moral and physical condition during the nine months of pregnancy and to use her judgment in regard to all outside influences that are brought to bear on her at that time, and also in regard to her own thoughts and desires—for great statesmen, lawyers, musicians, artists, are not so much a matter of coincidence as they are the direct result of painstaking and unceasing study, determined exercise of will and cultivation of taste during the prenatal period; neither are criminals, drunkards or degenerates so much a matter of chance, heredity or environment, as they are the product of the uncontrolled thought or wish of the mother during pregnancy or of the bestial condition of the father at the time of generation; and cripples and imbeciles are not so much the result of unfortunate circumstances as they are the direct result of an unsuccessful attempt at abortion on the part of the mother. It is knowledge that makes travail safe and almost painless and does away with the desire to practise abortion, which is due mostly to the ignorant fear of women of becoming mothers. It is knowledge that teaches the young mother to care for her baby easily and scientifically; that teaches her that the way to control her child is through obedience and the way to keep this control is through confidence; then when she faces the delicate situation of fitting the girl and boy for marriage and parenthood—her husband also has his duty to perform—her task is lighter and the result more beneficial, and she has then fulfilled her highest obligation to God and man!

It is only the knowledge of the terrible ravages of indulgence on mind, body and morals, and the supplement of mental and physical labor that will enable both sexes to refrain from this vicious practice. It is only the knowledge of the causes, symptoms, means of transmission, and of the number of years necessary to effect a complete cure of syphilis, the suffering entailed by the treatment, as well as the danger of allowing this disease to remain in the blood, both to the sufferer himself and to all those who ignorantly or carelessly come in contact with him, even after a local cure has been effected, that will teach humanity that self-control is of more value to health and happiness than the gratification of desire at the probable price of contracting this dread disease, which leaves its imprint, in the form of scrofula, infantile paralysis and bridgeless noses, etc., on the children of the offender and on his children's children, even unto the third and fourth generation. It is the knowledge of the innocent means of transmission of this disease that will make people more careful in the use of public places and appliances which of necessity must be patronized. It is knowledge that will teach man the secret of longevity and youth. And it is knowledge that will enable man to distinguish real love from passion; that will enable him to realize the potent force of congeniality in keeping down the affinity and divorce evils and in eventually rooting them out. And it is knowledge of this science of life that will finally reinstate the sanctity of the home which through ignorance has been so rudely defiled. It is knowledge that will put an end to the white slave traffic, because heretofore it has been the ignorance of the victims that has made their seduction to this nefarious business possible, either by kidnapping or drugging. It is knowledge that will keep the too trusting and unwary girl from surrendering herself to her lover, or to be more accurate, her seducer, under promise of marriage, because through knowledge she will learn to recognize all such overtures for her virtue as insults, mere tricks to bring about her ruin, and she will come to understand as her knowledge increases that no man seeks to seduce any woman through love, but through passion, and having gained his desire, his former passion turns to hate and loathing because unaccompanied by reverence or respect; and the woman who has fallen a victim to that passion, finding herself abandoned by the man she loved, sinks by degrees, varying according to temperament, to the lowest depths. It is knowledge that will teach both man and woman that to understand love, they must first understand that passion is but an element of love, an atom, but not love entire, even as will, judgment, respect, reverence, congeniality, are elements or atoms of love, and that all of these are necessary to form the sublime molecule, love. Knowledge also teaches man that the road to real love lies through the conquest of passion and that the only road to the happy marriage lies through real love.

Ellen Key's philosophy might do very well for an ideal race of human beings who were pure enough to be above passion or to be without it, but for the all too human race of men and women that inhabit this earth, whose everyday existence is one constant struggle with the arch enemy, passion, and whose success or failure depends upon their subjugation of it, this philosophy is very misleading and impractical. What erring humanity needs is education to enable it to withstand this enemy and to make it subservient to will and judgment. Herein lies another flaw in Ellen Key's philosophy—that sex instinct, which in man or beast is the primitive instinct for mating, and which, untutored and uncontrolled, is primarily a force for evil; this sex instinct she has made the controlling force in life, instead of love, which is the quintessence of controlled passion, and which is the greatest force for good in life.

It seems hardly possible that any philosopher could claim that the sex evils and distorted conditions are due to the lack of the recognition of the potency of the sex instinct, when on every side we see the most alarming and revolting evidences of its unrestrained sway. Alas! it is not the ignorance of the existence of this sex instinct or of the force of it that is the root of all the evils of the present day, and of the distorted social conditions, but the ignorance of the proper control of this instinct and the conservation of it for its rightful purpose. It likewise seems impossible that a philosopher who had the real good of humanity at heart could advocate the "burning of an ideal love into the heart of the youth with letters of fire—to give him real moral strength," and in the same breath advocate the casting off of all moral and social restraint to passion and thus destroy society's bulwark, woman's chastity, and the offspring's protection, marriage. That is but a contradictory philosophy which does not eradicate the sex evils, nor even lessen them, neither does it solve the sex problems, it only enlarges their scope for evil and promises nothing to its disciples but social and moral death! Burn the knowledge of the science of life into the heart of the youth with letters of fire—that will give him real moral strength; and burn it into the hearts of as many of erring humanity as it is possible for institutions, organizations and individuals in their respective jurisdictions to reach, and let the Government burn it into the heart of the nation through a new Department of Eugenics at our capital at Washington!

The love we all pray for, long for and so seldom realize in its fullest measure, is not attained, either because by dreaming of an impossible ideal love we overlook real love, or by thinking that we will never experience real love, we ignorantly or willfully accept its baser substitute, passion, in place of the purer gem. What is it and how shall we know it in contradistinction from its unrefined element, passion?

Love in its highest sense is that feeling of pre-eminent devotion and tenderness, founded on respect, mutual understanding and sympathy, a feeling so pure that it will guard the object of its affection from all physical and moral harm and will endow it with a sacredness which, though allied to the physical, will transcend the animal and raise it to the plane of the spiritual. Such a love could only have for its goal matrimony, and for its ultimate purpose the creation of a perfect race.

"Knowledge is power and power is life!" And the power and the life are within your reach if you will but stretch forth your hand and grasp them, and having grasped them, will you not, in the spirit of mercy that "blesseth him that gives and him that takes, that is mightiest in the mightiest," stretch forth your hand and help to lift the darkness of ignorance and prejudice from the masses that are as yet groping for the light?