THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

In the current number of Harpers. Samuel Hopkins Adams adds his shaft to the many which through all time have descended upon the ancient and honorable estate of matrimony. He advocates a scheme whereby the parties contracting in marriage shall agree to separate for a certain number of weeks in each year, during which period each shall endeavor to reconstitute his or her own individuality. Mr. Adams points out that to the student there comes a summer respite from school and a winter respite from home; to the bricklayer there comes a Saturday afternoon; to the professor, a sabbatical year; to the husband....no release, world-without-let-up.. for wives and the poor are always with one.

The sabbatical system brings to mind Judge Ben Lindsay's now famous theory of Companionate Marriage which emerged but slightly crippled by Bishop Manning's broadside, and is soon to approach the rostrum under the protection of the astute Bertrand Russell. While companionate marriage gropes for a footing midway between the antipodal theories of Trial Marriage and the customary timeworn marriage, Mr. Adams is bolstering up the latter against the radicalism of the former. A sabbatical system offers a field of compromise between extremes. Whatever may be the solution, these suggestions are recognizant not only of the fact that divorce maintains a high batting average but also that, as Havelock Ellis says, marriage is made for man and not man for marriage.