7. Kant, Fichte, and Schleiermacher

In his valuation of marriage Luther had in mind the average state of matrimony which has its motives in sexual desire as well as in interests of economy and of the family. The ideal of matrimony was heightened and the ethicality of prohibition of fornication and divorce was enforced when the independent ideas of ethical personality and individuality were applied in the general sphere of Protestantism. Kant and Fichte, starting from this notion of ethical personality and having in view the satisfaction of sexual appetite, reach the conclusion that the immoral degradation of woman is absent only when husband and wife yield up each to the other the entire personality, as in monogamous lifelong matrimony. Such a union, according to Fichte, removes from sexual communion its animal taint, gives it a character worthy of a rational being, and is a school of ethical ennoblement for which there is no substitute. To these ideas Schleiermacher gave clear and full expression. He thus formulated the ideal of chastity as applied to all sensual enjoyments. Sensual pleasure need not be lacking, but it must not be the impulsive force and must be under control of tke spirit. This conception is as far removed from the Neo-Pythagorean-Augustinian view of lust as from the assertion of the right of esthetically sublimated sensuality which appeared in the Renaissance and developed into a cult of the flesh. It lies within the sphere of Christian judgment which not only does not deny the gifts of nature, but rather appreciates them in so far as they may be subordinated to the ethical spirit. A second idea is that of individuality. The individual must not only place himself under the general moral code, but must also develop his own personal gifts under the guidance of the universal norm of ethics so as to represent humanity within himself in a peculiar manner. This thought fits in well with the Christian judgment of the relation of nature to the moral spirit and with the Reformed estimate of man's worth. In accordance with this idea Schleiermacher opposed merely prudential matches. His notion of matrimony involved that two individualities should mutually supplement each other and by virtue of this fact be mutually attracted, the result being that they foster each other's moral growth and by perfect communion of life become one will and even one being. In accordance with the individualistic character of the time he at first transferred the purpose of marriage entirely into the mutual ethical relation of husband and wife, abstracting its natural purpose of serving for the propagation of humanity, and he was in danger of applying his idea so absolutely that for the sake of realizing his ideal he would dissolve a marriage which did not correspond to that ideal. After the time of Friedrich Schlegel, this last idea became so dominant that not only was the annulment of marriages which did not fill these conditions declared moral, but the cooperation of society in promoting matrimony as the result of a feeling which is not under control was declared immoral. Divested of its esthetic nimbus, the illusion of the claim made by the individual's changing passion as against the objective order of society first appears with Bebel. During the turbulent times of war, Schleiermacher's eyes were opened to the moral importance of the community, so that he was led to correct himself, whereupon his ethical individualism lost its one-sidedness. Accordingly, he regards the duties involved by marriage and the resulting domestic education as specific means for the cultivation of the heart. He rejects polygamy and the right of divorce because there would then be lacking the fundamental conditions of education, viz., the permanent spiritual communion of the parents. The significance of marriage under Christianity results for him from the knowledge that the moral growth of the individual is conditioned by society. The Christian family is the most efficacious means for the expansion of Christianity.

Thus from the principle of distinction in sex there have developed in history two ethical possessions that can be realized only in monogamous and lifelong marriage, viz., family life as a pedagogic in morals and the mutual ethical advancement of two individualities which supplement each 8. Ethical Basis of Marriage. other. Both are independent of changes in economic, social, and political conditions. The socialistic prediction of the disappearance of family life as a consequence of the abolition of the household and the incorporation of private property into the State can not be fulfilled so long as there remains a call for the individualization of the material conditions of life, for bodily and spiritual recreation and for family life, and while the superiority of parental instruction over all public education is so decided. Moreover, love itself, in its inception and its disappearance, is not altogether independent of will and may by the use of the opportunities offered in marriage and family be elevated to the rank of an ethical intercourse, of perpetual sympathy. Thus the two ethical possessions of matrimony form the purpose of creation of male and female, and monogamous, lifelong marriage is the order of God's creation. Matrimony with its two possessions is a means for the coming of the kingdom of Christ on earth. The superior purpose is the social; for the ethical purpose of matrimony

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must be analogous to its natural purpose, and mutual ethical supplementing of two individualities can be realized only if both are perpetually united by their special ethical purposes. But owing to the different vocations of husband and wife such a union takes place as a rule only when the education of the children gives them a common purpose.