Love and Ethics

ELLEN KEY'S startling views on the marriage relation in "Love and Marriage" imply far more than a refusal to accept the sanctified, time-honored beliefs held by the majority to-day. The heat of the arguments provoked by her bold contentions often blinds her adversaries to the basic moral good in her creed. She elucidates some of the most difficult problems in eugenics by showing how the right marriage relation, founded on a higher moral standard in the sex relation, will make woman more capable of doing her share in the great work of social reconstruction.Valuable suggestions for the child-culture of the future are offered when she insists upon a change in the conditions which hamper woman in her highest work as a mother, and rob children of a mother's care. Love has assumed a deeper aspect since woman's powers have been liberated, hence we must strive for a higher perfection in the relation of the sexes. In "Love and Ethics" she deals with sex problems with the courage and the purity of mind which such themes demand, and she challenges the permanence of current ideals against the law of life which means change and growth. We must anticipate the necessity of establishing a new standard of moral values if present-day social wrongs and abuses are to be remedied. Ellen Key points the way to these higher values, without demanding that her revolutionary ideas of reform be translated into immediate action. Conditions are not ripe for the radical changes she suggests. A gradual transformation of moral values must lead the way to a better future, founded on a higher conception of love.