One of their
first duties, it is certain, should be to champion the constitutional
right of free speech and free press, to welcome any idea that tends to
awaken the critical attention of the great American public. But those
who reveal themselves as fully cognizant of this public duty are in
the minority, and must possess more than average courage to survive the
enmity such an attitude provokes.
One of the chief aims of the present volume is to stimulate American
intellectuals to abandon the mental habits which prevent them from
seeing human nature as a whole, instead of as something that can be
pigeonholed into various compartments or classes. Birth Control affords
an approach to the study of humanity because it cuts through
the limitations of current methods. It is economic, biological,
psychological and spiritual in its aspects. It awakens the vision of
mankind moving and changing, of humanity growing and developing, coming
to fruition, of a race creative, flowering into beautiful expression
through talent and genius.
As a social programme, Birth Control is not merely concerned with
population questions. In this respect, it is a distinct step in advance
of earlier Malthusian doctrines, which concerned themselves chiefly with
economics and population. Birth Control concerns itself with the spirit
no less than the body. It looks for the liberation of the spirit of
woman and through woman of the child. To-day motherhood is wasted,
penalized, tortured.
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