The Reason

The veason tbat niarriage is not 10 eotumon as it was - a fact that statiiics seem to place beyond a reasonable doubt - is due to the growth of luxury. Each male individual has so many wants nowadays, manr of them wants which are not natural, but created by hiru6elf, and without which he would be morally as well as physically better olF, that he hesitates to sacr.fice them on the hymenoal altar. Wages have ad vaneed, but the alleged necessilies of modern life have increased out of all proportion. Then again the number of men who dweil in cities is inoreusing in proportion to total population; and the men who dweil in cities are not as lonely as their fellows ,in the oountry, can enjoy fumale society without having to marry lor it, and do not need the evening shelter of a home so much, for thereare plenty of places where they may pass their evenings comfortably, according to their tastes. There oan Ie no doubt also t'iat tlie moráis of our young peoplo h:ivo deteriorated also, nor can one wonder that they havo in the face of our divorce laws. When the marriage relatlon is no more held saored, but a 1 ght yoko that either party to the contract iu:iy discurd almosi at the wliim of a momunt, the institution is certain to come to be regarded as a mere ceremony and matter of form - a eoncessiun to the prajudices of society - whch muy be evaded if evasion bu possible without social scandal. If civilizat on tread the path it is now treading we may expect a stcacly dimiuutiou in the proportion of marriages, till some revolutionarr storm or other clears the air and changes the face of he social earth. -