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Here we must invent new ideals.  We ought not to be permitted to come to a decision affecting our life while we are in the condition of being in love, nor to determine once and for all the character of the company we keep on the basis of a violent whim: the oaths of lovers ought to be publicly declared invalid and marriage denied them:  the reason being that one ought to take marriage enormously more seriously! so that in precisely those cases in which marriages have hitherto taken place they would henceforth usually not take place! Are most marriages not of a kind that one would prefer not to be witnessed by a third party? But this third party is almost always present  the child  and he is more than a witness, he is a scapegoat!