Thousands of couples who are
childless against their own wills have learnt none the less to live
together in lasting happiness. But when childlessness is the result of
a mere selfish policy, it often revenges itself upon the couple
concerned. They have deliberately refused satisfaction to one of the
deepest instincts within them, and though they may not realize it,
those suppressed instincts destroy their harmony of being. They do not
face the fact that they have such instincts, because they could not
meet them with any adequate reason for suppressing them. They try to
deceive themselves into believing that the instincts are not there, or
they repress them from selfish causes, and life does not let them off.
Love remains unsatisfied. Its august claims have been refused. And
therefore it does not and cannot continue to bring them joy.
Another reason for unhappy marriages I have already spoken of in a
previous chapter. Sometimes they were marriages of passion and not of
love. Sometimes men and women allow themselves to be hurried into union
by the driving force of an almost impersonal thing that is purely
physical in nature, and though they think they are acting out of love,
they are leaving out the larger part of their natures.
Pages:
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200