{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_37356/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_37356","id":"gutenberg_37356","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37356","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Sexuality & Erotica","Sex","Sexual ethics"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by David Widger\n\n\nSEX-LOVE,\n\nAND ITS PLACE IN A FREE SOCIETY: (SECOND EDITION)\n\nBY EDWARD CARPENTER.\n\nPRICE FOURPENCE.\n\nMANCHESTER:\n\nThe Labour Press Society Limited, Printers and Publishers\n\n1894.\n\n\nSEX-LOVE\n\nThe subject of Sex is most difficult to deal with, not only on account\nof a certain prudery as well as a natural reticence on the subject, but\ndoubtless also because the passion itself being so tremendously strong\nand occupying such a large part of human thought--and words being so\nscanty and inadequate on the subject--everything that _is_ said is\nliable to be misunderstood; the most violent inferences are made, and\nequivocations surmised, from the simplest remarks; qualified admissions\nof liberty are interpreted into recommendations of unbridled licence;\nand generally the perspective of literary expression is turned upside\ndown by the effect of the unfamiliarity of the topic on the reader's\nmind.\n\nThere is indeed a vast deal of fetishism in the current treatment of\nSex; and the subject is dealt with as though it lay quite out of line\nwith any other need or faculty of human nature. Nor can one altogether\nbe surprised at this when one perceives of what vast import Sex is in\nthe scheme of things, and how deeply it it has been associated since the\nearliest times not only with man's personal impulses but even with his\nreligious sentiments and ceremonials.\n\nNext to hunger this is doubtless the most primitive and imperative of\nour needs. But in modern civilised life Sex enters probably even more\ninto _consciousness_ than hunger. For the hunger-needs of the human race\nare in the later societies fairly well satisfied, but the sex-desires\nare strongly restrained, both by law and custom, from satisfaction--and\nso assert themselves all the more in thought.\n\nTo find the place of these desires, their utterance, their control,\ntheir personal import, their social import, is a tremendous problem to\nevery youth and girl, man and woman.\n\nThere are a few of both sexes, doubtless, who hardly feel the\npassion--who have never been \"in love,\" and who experience no strong\nsexual appetite--but these are rare. Practically the passion is a\nmatter of universal experience; and speaking broadly and generally we\nmay say it is a matter on which it is quite desirable that every adult\nat some time or other _should_ have experience--actual and physical,\nas well as emotional. There may be exceptions; but, as said,\nthe sex-instinct lies so deep and is so universal, that for the\nunderstanding of life--of one's own life, of that of others, and of\nhuman nature in general--as well as for the proper development of one's\nown capacities, such experience is almost indispensable.\n\nAnd here in passing I would say that in the social life of the future\nthis need will surely be recognised, and not only will young people\nbe deliberately prepared and instructed for the fulfilment of Sex\nwhen their time comes, but (while there will be no stigma attaching to\nvoluntary celibacy) the state of enforced celibacy in which vast numbers\nof women live to-day will be looked upon as a national wrong, almost as\ngrievous as that of prostitution--of which latter evil indeed it is in\nsome degree the counterpart or necessary accompaniment.\n\nOf course Nature (personifying under this term the more unconscious,\neven though human, instincts and forces) takes pretty good care in her\nown way that most people should have sexual experience. She has her\nown purposes to work out, which in a sense have nothing to do with\nthe individual--her racial purposes. But she acts in the rough,\nwith tremendous sweep and power, and with little adjustment to or\nconsideration for the later developed and more conscious and intelligent\nideals of humanity. The youth, deeply infected with the sex-passion,\nsuddenly finds himself in the presence of Titanic forces--the Titanic\nbut sub-conscious forces of his own nature. \"In love\" he feels a\nsuperhuman strength--and rightly so, for he identifies himself with\ncosmic energies and entities, powers that are preparing the future of\nthe race, and whose operations extend over vast regions of space and\nmillennial lapses of time. He sees into the abysmal deeps of his own\nbeing, and trembles with a kind of awe at the disclosure. And what he\nfeels concerning himself he feels similarly concerning the one who has\ninspired his passion. The glances of the two lovers penetrate far beyond\nthe surface, ages down into each other, waking a myriad antenatal\ndreams.\n\nFor the moment he lets himself go, rejoicing in the sense of limitless\npower beneath him--borne onwards like a man down rapids, too intoxicated\nwith the glory of motion to think of whither he is going; then the\nnext moment he discovers that he is being hurried into impossible\nsituations--situations which his own moral conscience, as well as the\nmoral conscience of Society, embodied in law and custom, will not admit.\nHe finds perhaps that the satisfaction of his imperious impulse is, to\nall appearances, inconsistent with the welfare of her he loves. His own\npassion arises before him as a kind of rude giant which he or the race\nto which he belongs may, Frankenstein-like, have created ages back, but\nwhich he now has to dominate or be dominated by; and there declares\nitself in him the fiercest conflict--that between his far-back Titanic\ninstinctive and sub-conscious nature, and his later developed, more\nespecially human and moral self.\n\nWhile the glory of Sex pervades and suffuses all Nature; while the\nflowers are rayed and starred out towards the sun in the very ecstasy of\ngeneration; while the nostrils of the animals dilate, and their forms\nbecome instinct, under the passion, with a proud and fiery beauty;\nwhile even the human lover is transformed, and in the great splendors\nof the mountains and the sky perceives something to which he had not the\nkey before--yet it is curious that just here, in Man, we find the magic\nwand of Nature suddenly broken, and doubt and conflict and division\nentering in, where a kind of unconscious harmony had first prevailed.\n\nHeine I think says somewhere that the man who loves unsuccessfully knows\nhimself to be a god. It is not perhaps till the great current of sexual\nlove is checked and brought into conflict with the other parts of his\nbeing that the whole nature of the man, sexual and moral, under the\ntremendous stress rises into consciousness and reveals in fire its\ngod-like quality. This is the work of the artificer who makes immortal\nsouls--who out of the natural love evolves even a more perfect love. \"In\ntutti gli amanti,\" says Giordano Bruno, \"\u00e9 questo fabro vulcano\" (\"in\nall lovers is this Olympian blacksmith present\").\n\nIt is the subject of this conflict, or at least differentiation, between\nthe sexual and the more purely moral and social instincts in man which\ninterests us here. It is clear, I think, that if sex is to be treated\nrationally, that is, neither superstitiously on the one hand nor\nlicentiously on the other, we must be willing to admit that both the\nsatisfaction of the passion and the non-satisfaction of it are desirable\nand beautiful. They both have their results, and man has to reap the\nfruits which belong to both experiences. May we not say that there is\nprobably some sort of transmutation of essences continually effected and\neffectible in the human frame? Lust and Love--the _Aphrodite Pandemos_\nand the _Aphrodite Ouranios_--are subtly interchangeable. Perhaps the\ncorporeal amatory instinct and the ethereal human yearning for personal\nunion are really and in essence one thing, with diverse forms of\nmanifestation. However that may be, it is pretty evident that there is\nsome deep relationship between them. It is a matter of common experience\nthat the unrestrained outlet of merely physical desire leaves the\nnature drained of its higher love-forces; while on the other hand if the\nphysical satisfaction be denied the body becomes surcharged with waves\nof emotion--sometimes to an unhealthy and dangerous degree. Yet at times\nthis emotional love may, by reason of its expression being checked or\nrestricted, transform itself into the all-penetrating subtle influence of\nspiritual love.\n\nMarcus Aurelius quotes a saying of Heraclitus to the effect that the\ndeath of earth is to become water (liquefaction), and the death of water\nis to become air (evaporation), and the death of air is to become\nfire (combustion). So in the human body are there sensual, emotional,\nspiritual, and other elements of which it may be said that their death\non one plane means their transformation and new birth on other planes.\n\nIt will readily be seen that I am not arguing that the lower or more\nphysical manifestations of love should be killed out in order to force\nthe growth of the more spiritual and enduring forms--because Nature in\nher slow evolutions does not generally countenance such high and mighty\nmethods; but am merely trying to indicate that there are grounds for\nbelieving in the transmutability of the various forms of the passion,\nand grounds for thinking that the sacrifice of a lower phase may\nsometimes be the only condition on which a higher and more durable phase\ncan be attained; and that therefore Restraint (which is absolutely\nnecessary at times) _has_ its compensation.\n\nAny one who has once realised how glorious a thing Love is in its\nessence, and how indestructible, will hardly need to call anything that\nleads to it a sacrifice; and he is indeed a master of life who accepting\nthe grosser desires as they come to his body, and not refusing them,\nknows how to transform them at will into the most rare and fragrant\nflowers of human emotion.\n\nUntil these subjects are openly put before children and young people\nwith some degree of intelligent and sympathetic handling, it can\nscarcely be expected that anything but the utmost confusion, in mind\nand in morals, should reign in matters of Sex. That we should leave our\nchildren to pick up their information about the most sacred, the most\nprofound and vital, of all human functions, from the mere gutter, and\nlearn to know it first from the lips of ignorance and vice, seems almost\nincredible, and certainly indicates the deeply-rooted unbelief and\nuncleanness of our own thoughts. Yet a child at the age of puberty, with\nthe unfolding of its far-down emotional and sexual nature, is eminently\ncapable of the most sensitive, affectional, and serene appreciation\nof what Sex means (generally more so, as things are to-day, than\nits worldling parent or guardian); and can absorb the teaching, if\nsympathetically given, without any shock or disturbance to its sense of\nshame--that sense which is so natural and valuable a safeguard of early\nyouth.\n\nTo teach the child first, quite openly, its physical relation to its own\nmother, its long indwelling in her body, and the deep and sacred bond of\ntenderness between mother and child in consequence; then, after a time,\nto explain the work of fatherhood, and how the love of the parents for\neach other was the cause of its own (the child's) existence: these\nthings are easy and natural--at least they are so to the young mind--and\nexcite in it no surprise, or sense of unfitness, but only gratitude\nand a kind of tender wonderment.* Then, later on, as the special sexual\nneeds and desires develop, to instruct the girl or boy in the further\ndetails of the matter, and the care and right conduct of her or his own\nsexual nature; on the meaning and the dangers of solitary indulgence--if\nthis habit has been contracted; on the need of self-control and\nthe presence of affection in all relations with others, and (without\nasceticism) on the possibility of deflecting physical desire to some\ndegree into affectional and emotional channels, and the great gain so\nresulting: all these are things which an ordinary youth of either sex\nwill easily understand and appreciate, and which may be of priceless\nvalue, saving such an one from years of struggle in foul morasses, and\nwaste of precious life-strength. Finally, with the maturity of\nthe moral nature, the supremacy of the pure human relation should be\ntaught--not the extinguishment of desire, but the attainment of the real\nkernel of it, its dedication to the well-being of another--the evolution\nof the _human_ element in love, balancing the natural--till at last the\nsnatching of an unglad pleasure, regardless of the other from whom it\nis snatched, or the surrender of one's body to another, for any reason\nexcept that of love, become things impossible.\n\n     *See Appendix.\n\nBetween lovers then a kind of hardy temperance is much to be\nrecommended--for all reasons, but especially because it lifts\ntheir satisfaction and delight in each other out of the region of\nephemeralities (which too soon turn to dull indifference and satiety)\ninto the region of more lasting things--one step nearer at any rate to\nthe Eternal Kingdom. How intoxicating indeed, how penetrating--like a\nmost precious wine--is that love which is the sexual transformed by the\nmagic of the will into the emotional and spiritual! And what a loss\non the merest grounds of prudence and the economy of pleasure is its\nunbridled waste along physical channels! So nothing is so much to be\ndreaded between lovers as just this--the vulgarisation of love--and this\nis the rock upon which marriage so often splits.\n\nThere is a kind of illusion about physical desire similar to that which\na child suffers from when, seeing a beautiful flower, it instantly\nsnatches the same, and destroys in a few moments the form and fragrance\nwhich attracted it. He only gets the full glory who holds himself back a\nlittle, and truly possesses who is willing if need be not to possess.\n\nOn the other hand it must not be pretended that the physical passions\nare by their nature abhorrent, or anything but admirable and desirable\nin their place. Any attempt to absolutely disown or despite them,\ncarried out over long periods either by individuals Or bodies of\npeople, only ends in the _thinning out_ of the human nature--by the very\nconsequent stinting of the supply of its growth-material, and is liable\nto stultify itself in time by leading to reactionary excesses. It must\nnever be forgotten that the physical basis throughout life is of the\nfirst importance, and supplies the nutrition and food-stuff without\nwhich the higher powers cannot exist or at least manifest themselves.\nIntimacies founded on intellectual and moral affinities alone are seldom\nvery deep and lasting; if the physical or sexual basis is quite absent,\nthe acquaintanceship is liable to die away again like an ill-rooted\nplant. In many cases (especially of women) the nature is never really\nunderstood or disclosed till the sex-feeling is touched--however\nlightly. Besides it must be remembered that in order for a perfect\nintimacy between two people their bodies must by the nature of the case\nbe free to each other. The sexual and bodily intimacy may not be the\nobject for which they come together; but if it is denied, its denial\nwill bar any real sense of repose and affiance, and make the relation\nrestless, vague, tentative and unsatisfied.\n\nIn these lights it will be seen that what we call asceticism and what we\ncall libertinism are two sides practically of the same shield. So\nlong as the tendency towards mere pleasure-indulgence is strong and\nuncontrolled, so long will the instinct towards asceticism assert\nitself--and rightly, else we might speedily find ourselves in headlong\nPhaethonian career. Asceticism is in its place (as the word would\nindicate) as an _exercise_; but let it not be looked upon as an end in\nitself, for that is a mistake of the same kind as going to the opposite\nextreme. Certainly if the welfare and happiness of the beloved one were\nalways really the main purpose in our minds we should have plenty of\noccasion for self-control, and an artificial asceticism would not be\nneeded. We look for a time doubtless when the hostility between these\ntwo parts of man's unperfected nature will be merged in the perfect\nlove; but at present and until this happens their conflict is certainly\none of the most pregnant things in all our experience; and must not by\nany means be blinked or evaded, but boldly faced. It is in itself almost\na sexual act. The mortal nature through it is, so to speak, torn asunder;\nand through the rent so made in his mortality does it sometimes happen\nthat a new and immortal man is born.\n\nThe Sex-act affords the type of all pleasures. The dissatisfaction which\nat times follows on it is the same as follows on all pleasure which is\n_sought_, and which does not come unsought. The dissatisfaction is not\nin the nature of pleasure itself but in the nature of _seeking_. In\nconsciously surrendering oneself to the pursuit of things external, the\n\"I\" (since it really has everything and needs nothing) deceives itself,\ngoes out from its true home, tears itself asunder, and admits a gap or\nrent in its own being. This is what is meant by _sin_--the separation\nor sundering (German _S\u00fcnde_) of one's being--and all the pain that\ngoes therewith. It all consists in _seeking_ those external things and\npleasures; not (a thousand times be it said) in those external things\nor pleasures themselves. They are all fair and gracious enough; their\nplace is to stand round the throne and offer their homage--rank behind\nrank in their multitudes--if so be we will accept it. But for us to go\nout of ourselves to run after _them_, to allow ourselves to be divided\nand rent in twain by _their_ attraction, that is an inversion of the\norder of heaven; and in so doing does sin and all suffering enter in.\n\nOf all pleasures the sexual tempts most strongly to this desertion of\none's true self, and stands as the type of Maya and the world-illusion;\nyet the beauty of the loved one and the delight of corporeal union all\nturn to dust and ashes if bought at the price of disunion and disloyalty\nin the higher spheres--disloyalty even to the person whose mortal love\nis sought. The higher and more durable part of man, whirled along in\nthe rapids and whirlpools of desire, experiences tortures the moment it\ncomes to recognise that It is something other than physical. Then comes\nthe struggle to regain its lost Paradise, and the frightful effort\nof co-ordination between the two natures, by which the centre of\nconsciousness is gradually transferred from the fugitive to the more\npermanent part, and the mortal and changeable is assigned its due place\nin the outer chambers and forecourts of the temple.\n\nPleasure should come as the natural (and indeed inevitable)\naccompaniment of life, believed in with a kind of free faith, but never\nsought as the object of life. It is in the inversion of this order that\nthe uncleanness of the senses arises. Sex to-day throughout the domains\nof civilisation is thoroughly unclean.\n\nEverywhere it is slimed over with the thought of pleasure. Not for\njoy, not for mere delight in and excess of life, not for pride in the\ngeneration of children, not for a symbol and expression of deepest\nsoul-union, does it exist--but for pleasure. Hence we disown it in our\nthoughts, and cover it up with false shame and unbelief--knowing well\nthat to seek a social act for a private pleasure is a falsehood. The\nbody itself is kept religiously covered, smothered away from the rush of\nthe great purifying life of Nature, infected with dirt and disease, and\na subject for prurient thought and exaggerated lust such as in its naked\nstate it would never provoke. The skin becomes sickly and corrupt, and\nof a dead leaden white hue, which strangely enough is supposed to be\nmore beautiful than the rich rose-brown, delicately shaded into lighter\ntints in the less exposed parts, which it would wear if tanned by\ndaily welcome of sun and wind. Sexual embraces themselves are seldom\nsanctified by the glories of Nature, in whose presence alone, under\nthe burning sun or the high canopy of the stars and surrounded by the\nfragrant atmosphere, their meaning can be fully understood: but take\nplace in stuffy dens of dirty upholstery and are associated with all\nunbeautiful things.\n\nEven literature, which might have been expected to preserve some decent\nexpression on this topic, reflects all too clearly by its silence or by\nits pruriency the prevailing spirit of unbelief; and in order to find\nany sane faithful strong and calm words on the subject, one has to wade\nright back through the marshes and bogs of civilised scribbledom, and\ntoil eastward across its arid wastes to the very dawn-hymns of the Aryan\nraces.\n\nIn one of the Upanishads of the Vedic sacred books (the Brihadaranyaka\nUpanishad) there is a very beautiful passage in which instruction is\ngiven to the man who desires a noble son as to the prayers which he\nshall offer to the gods on the occasion of congress with his wife. In\nprimitive simple and serene language it directs him how \"when he has\nplaced his virile member in the body of his wife and joined his mouth to\nher mouth\" he should pray to the various forms of deity who preside over\nthe operations of nature: to Vishnu to prepare the womb of the future\nmother, to Prajapati to watch over the influx of the semen, and to the\nother gods to nourish the foetus, etc. Nothing could be (I am judging\nfrom the only translation I have met with, a Latin one) more composed,\nserene, simple and religious in feeling, and well might it be if such\ninstructions were preserved and followed, even down to the present day;\nyet such is the degradation we have come to that actually Max M\u00fcller in\nhis translations of the Sacred Books of the East appears to have been\nunable to persuade himself to render this and a few other quite similar\npassages into English, but gives them in the original Sanskrit! One\nmight have thought that as Professor in the University of Oxford,\npresumedly _sans peur et sans reproche_, and professedly engaged in\nmaking a translation of these books for students, it was his duty and it\nmight have been his delight to make intelligible just such passages as\nthese, which give the pure and pious sentiment of the early world in so\nperfect a form; unless indeed he thought the sentiment impure and\nimpious--in which case we have indeed a measure of the degradation of\nthe public opinion which must have swayed his mind. As to the only\nGerman translation of the Upanishad which I can find, it baulks at the\nsame passages in the same feeble way--repeating _nicht zu wiedergeben,\nnicht zu wiedergeben_, over and over again, till at last one can but\nconclude that the translator is right, and that the simplicity and\nsacredness of the feeling is in this our time indeed \"not to be\nreproduced.\"\n\nOur public opinion, our literature, our customs, our laws, are saturated\nwith the notion of the uncleanness of Sex, and are so making the\nconditions of its cleanness more and more difficult. Our children, as\nsaid, have to pick up their intelligence on the subject in the gutter.\nLittle boys bathing on the outskirts of our towns are hunted down by\nidiotic policemen, apparently infuriated by the sight of the naked body,\neven of childhood. Lately in one of our northern towns, the boys and men\nbathing in a public pool set apart by the corporation for the purpose,\nwere--though forced to wear some kind of covering--kept till nine\no'clock at night before they were allowed to go into the water--lest in\nthe full daylight Mrs. Grundy should behold any portion of their bodies!\nand as for women and girls their disabilities in the matter are most\nserious.\n\nTill this dirty and dismal sentiment with regard to the human body is\nremoved there can be little hope of anything like a free and gracious\npublic life. With the regeneration of our social ideas the whole\nconception of Sex as a thing covert and to be ashamed of, marketable and\nunclean, will have to be regenerated. That inestimable freedom and pride\nwhich is the basis of all true manhood and womanhood will have to enter\ninto this most intimate relation to preserve it frank and pure--pure\nfrom the damnable commercialism which buys and sells all human things,\nand from the religious hypocrisy which covers and conceals; and a\nhealthy delight in and cultivation of the body and all its natural\nfunctions and a determination to keep them pure and beautiful, open and\nsane and free, will have to become a recognised part of national life.\n\nPossibly, and indeed probably, as the sentiment of common life and\ncommon interest grows, and the capacity for true companionship increases\nwith the decrease of self-regarding anxiety, the importance of the\nmere sex-act will dwindle till it comes to be regarded as only one very\nspecialised factor in the full total of human love. There is no doubt\nthat with the full realisation of affectional union the need of actual\nbodily congress loses some of its urgency; and it is not difficult\nto see in our present-day social life that the want of the former is\n(according to the law of transmutation) one marked cause of the violence\nand extravagance of the lower passions. But however things may change\nwith the further evolution of man, there is no doubt that first of all\nthe sex-relation must be divested of the sentiment of uncleanness which\nsurrounds it, and rehabilitated again with a sense almost of religious\nconsecration; and this means, as I have said, a free people, proud in\nthe mastery and the divinity of their own lives, and in the beauty and\nopenness of their own bodies.\n\nSex is the allegory of Love in the physical world. It is from this\nfact that it derives its immense power. The aim of Love is\nnon-differentiation--absolute union of being; but absolute union can only\nbe found at the centre of existence. Therefore whoever has truly found\nanother has found not only that other, and with that other himself, but\nhas found also a third--who dwells at the centre and holds the plastic\nmaterial of the universe in the palm of his hand, and is a creator of\nsensible forms.\n\nSimilarly the aim of sex is union and non-differentiation--but on\nthe physical plane,--and in the moment when this union is accomplished\ncreation takes place, and the generation (in the plastic material of the\nsex-elements) of sensible forms.\n\nIn the animal and lower human world--and wherever the creature is\nincapable of realising the perfect love (which is indeed able to\ntransform it into a god)--Nature in the purely physical instincts does\nthe next best thing, that is, she effects a corporeal union and so\ngenerates another creature who by the very process of his generation\nshall be one step nearer to the universal soul and the realisation of\nthe desired end. Nevertheless the moment the other love and all that\ngoes with it is realised the natural sexual love has to fall into\na secondary place--the lover must stand on his feet and not on his\nhead--or else the most dire confusions ensue, and torments _\u00e6onian_.\n\nTaking all together I think it may fairly be said that the prime object\nof Sex is _union_, the physical union as the allegory and expression of\nthe real union, and that generation is a secondary object or result of\nthis union. If we go to the lowest material expressions of Sex--as among\nthe protozoic cells--we find that they, the cells, unite together, two\ninto one; and that, as a result of the nutrition that ensues, this joint\ncell after a time (but not always) breaks up by fission into a number of\nprogeny cells; or if on the other hand we go to the very highest\nexpression of Sex, in the sentiment of Love, we find the latter takes\nthe form chiefly and before all else of a desire for union, and only in\nlesser degree of a desire for race-propagation.\n\nI mention this because it probably makes a good deal of difference in\nour estimate of Sex whether the one function or the other is considered\nprimary. There is perhaps a slight tendency among medical and other\nauthorities to overlook the question of the important physical actions\nand reactions, and even corporeal modifications, which may ensue upon\nsexual intercourse between two people, and to fix their attention\ntoo exclusively upon their child-bearing function; but in truth it is\nprobable, I think, from various considerations, that the spermatozoa\npass through the tissues and affect the general body of the female, as\nwell as that the male absorbs minutest cells _from_ the female; and\nthat generally, even without the actual Sex-act, there is an interchange\nof vital and etherial elements--so that there is a kind of generation\ntaking place _in each other_, as well as that more specialised\ngeneration which consists in the propagation of the race.\n\nAt the last and taking it as a whole one has the same difficulty in\ndealing with the subject of Love which meets one at every turn in\nmodern life--the monstrous separation of one part of our nature\nfrom another--the way in which--no doubt in the necessary course of\nevolution--we have cut ourselves in twain as it were, and assigned\n\"right\" and \"wrong,\" heaven and hell, spiritual and material, and other\nviolent distinctions, to the separate portions. We have eaten of the\nTree of Knowledge of good and evil with a vengeance! The Lord has indeed\ndriven us out of Paradise into the domain of that \"fabro vulcano\" who\nwith tremendous hammer-strokes must _hammer the knowledge of good and\nevil out of us again_. I feel that I owe an apology to the beautiful god\nfor daring even for a moment to think of dissecting him soul from body,\nand for speaking as if these artificial distinctions were in any wise\neternal. Will the man or woman, or race of men and women, never come,\nto whom love in its various manifestations shall be from the beginning a\nperfect whole, pure and natural, free and standing sanely on its feet?\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\n\"I analysed a flower, I pointed out to her the beauty of colouring, the\ngracefulness of shape, the tender shades, the difference between the\nparts composing the flowers. Gradually, I told her what these parts were\ncalled. I showed her the pollen, which clung like a beautiful golden\npowder to her little rosy fingers. I showed her through the microscope\nthat this beautiful powder was composed of an infinite number of small\ngrains. I made her examine the pistil more closely, and I showed her, at\nthe end of the tube, the ovary, which I called a 'little house full of\nvery tiny children.' I showed her the pollen glued to the pistil, and I\ntold her, that when the pollen of one flower, carried away by the wind,\nor by the insects, fell on the pistil of another flower, the small\ngrains died, and a tiny drop of moisture passed through the tube and\nentered into the little house where the very tiny children dwelt; that\nthese tiny children were like small eggs, that in each small egg there\nwas an almost invisible opening, through which a little of the small\ndrop passed; that when this drop of pollen mixed with some other\nwonderful power in the ovary, that both joined together to give life,\nand the eggs developed and became grains or fruit. I have shown her\nflowers which had only a pistil and others which had only stamens. I\nsaid to her, smiling, that the pistils were like little mothers, and the\nstamens like little fathers of the fruit....\n\n\"Thus I sowed in this innocent heart and searching mind the seeds of that\ndelicate science, which degenerates into obscenity, if the mother,\nthrough false shame, leaves the instruction of her child to its\nschoolfellows. Let my little girl ask me, if she likes, the much dreaded\nquestion; I will only have to remind her of the botany lessons, simply\nadding, the same thing happens to human beings, with this difference,\nthat what is done unconsciously by the plants, is done consciously by\nus; that in a properly arranged society one only unites one's self to\nthe person one loves.'\"--(Translated from \"La Revendication des Droits\nF\u00e9minins,\" _Shafts_, April 1894, p. 237.)\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"Sex-Love, and Its Place in a Free Society","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":5450}