You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The author is at pains to point out that the companionate marriage cannot in reality be much different from trial marriage, and having done this proceeds to expound the difficulties and dangers that would attend this latter institution. The author thinks that trial marriage or any other
system of organised sex relationship outside permanent monogamy is dangerous because it is likely to cause too much emphasis to be laid upon merely sensual attraction and because its temporary character itself tends to engender an attitude of 'looking for trouble.' It is clear that a real endeavour has been made to look difficulties in the face and to weigh the arguments on each side, and the book can be recommended as a conscientious approach to the subject from the conservative point of view. The treatment suffers however from being too exclusively sociological in nature, psychological considerations being almost entirely neglected. Thus, although much of the author's argument is concerned with a contrast between sensuality and affection, no attempt is made to distinguish between the condition of 'being in love' and the more steady and permanent elements of affection upon which most stable marriages depend. In a concluding chapter the author indicates his own remedies for modern troubles, e.g. education for family life, bureaux for family counsel, greater social freedom within married life, divorce reform, painless childbirth, family insurance and cultivation of æsthetic values.