"Yes, and failed contemptibly because their motive was contemptible.
They did not want to improve society, but to make self-indulgence
possible without shame. I think our own marriage laws might be
improved."
"People are trying to improve them," he said, with a slight laugh. "A
friend of mine has just married a girl who objected to take the oath of
obedience. How absurd it is for a girl of nineteen to imagine she knows
better than all the ages." "I think," said Ideala, "that it is more
absurd for 'all the ages' to subscribe to an oath which something
stronger than themselves makes it impossible for half of them to keep.
Strength of character must decide the question of place in a household
as it does elsewhere; and it is surely folly to require, and useless to
insist on, the submission of the strong to the weak. The marriage oath
is farcical. A woman is made to swear to love a man who will probably
prove unlovable, to honour a man who is as likely as not to be
undeserving of honour, and to obey a man who may be incapable of
judging what is best either for himself or her.
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