This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 Excerpt: ...yes, I will put the thing plainly--means ruin for a woman. Look at the condition of our streets: don't you see there the incarnate results of your reckless theories of love, carried out on a large scale by others?" "No," said Robert, " I see nothing of the sort. On the contrary, I think that the state of the streets ...
Read More
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 Excerpt: ...yes, I will put the thing plainly--means ruin for a woman. Look at the condition of our streets: don't you see there the incarnate results of your reckless theories of love, carried out on a large scale by others?" "No," said Robert, " I see nothing of the sort. On the contrary, I think that the state of the streets springs from the want of a clearer and more wide-spread apprehension of my theory. The bigoted upholder of marriage plays into the hands of the sensualist. 'Ruin' is a most misleading word. Is not the young girl who, at her mother's bidding, marries simply for money and position, almost certainly 'ruined'--and in the very worst, most deadly, sense? Are not the thousands of women who are compelled against their will to become old maids, just because we choose in our blind folly to hold that all love outside marriage must necessarily be dishonourable, --are not these, poor things (for from my soul I pity them), ' ruined ' also?" "I think," remarked Shaw, "that you may certainly say this--that of all 'ruined' women, the old maid is ruined in about the worst and most unnatural way. I go so far with Perceval. And, as there are some three million more women than men in England, it is hard to see how this, the worst sort of ruin, can be avoided or minimised without what is called ' seduction '; which, by the way, is just as misleading a term as 'ruin.'" "Broadly speaking," said Perceval, "the woman who has given herself freely for love, even to a bad man, has not been seduced or ruined at all--she has triumphed--more especially over her 'respectable, ' but unloving, sisters." "Yes," said Shaw, "that I cordially agree with. One day that will be seen clearly; even by the 'respe...
Read Less
![A Life's Love [Sonnets]](https://www4.alibris-static.com/a-lifes-love-sonnets/isbn/9781150536144.gif)
