The question of celibacy is too large and complicated to be here discussed in its moral and sociological aspects. It is a condition that confronts us, must be accepted, and the best made of it. Whether by economic compulsion or personal preference, it is a fact that a large number of American men remain bachelors, and a corresponding number of American women content themselves with a life of "single blessedness". It is a tendency of modern life that marriage be deferred more and more to a later period of maturity. The single woman has an advantage over her married sister in freedom of choice, of self-improvement, and service to others. Says George Eliot of the wife", A woman's lot is made for her by the love she accepts". The "bachelor girl", on the other hand, has virtually all the liberty of the man whom her name indicates that she emulates.
