The Problem of Purity

THE
lOBLEM
i
Violet Firth
(WON FORTUNE)
THE PROBLEM OF PURITY
THE
PROBLEM OF PURITY
VIOLET M. FIRTH
AUTHOR OF
MACHINERY OF THI MIND," "PSYCHOLOGY
OF THE SERVANT PROBLEM," ETC.
SAMUEL WEISER
New York
Samuel Weiser.
740 Broadway
New
York.
Inc.
NY. 10003
ISBN 0-87728-506-3
Printed
in
the U.S.A. by
Noble Offset
New
Printers. Inc.
York. N.Y. 10003
CONTENTS
.....
CHAPTER
Foreword
I.
II.
Our Attitude Towards Sex

Motives for Control
IV.
The Purpose of the Sex
VI.
VII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
16
22
Instinct
32
The Strategy of Sex Control
37
The Control of the Sex Force
45
The Power of the Sublimated
....
Forces
VIII.
Introduction
III.
V.
PAGE
Life-
53
The Building of the Higher Self
65
The Celibate
The Sex
Life
Life of the Child
Sex Enlightenment
...
.
The Psychology of Modesty

The Problem of
Self-abuse
Abnormal Forms of Sexuality

Wisdom
in
Love
77
85
92
99
107
.114
FOREWORD
am
INreadersbook
what
this
patients
trying to
have
who have come
therapy.
for sex
It
is
so often
to
me
for
my
done
for
do
for psycho-
really a course of treatments
control,
and the
earlier
chapters,
which deal with Standpoint and motive,

should be carefully read and re-read because
they are intended to produce a frame of
mind
in the reader, juft as I
or she
I
and
came
do
to
not,
me
for
interviews.
if
he
as a patient.
however, take patients now,
therefore this
work,
would do
book muft do
cannot
undertake
its
own
to
give

INTRODUCTION
MANY
books have been written which
explain the fa6ts of sex in simple
language
many
for social purity
others
which make appeals
and some few, of varying
which deal with the problems of
value,
married
life
but, so far as
have attempted
manner with
to follow
inStind:
know, none
to deal in a really pra&ical
and
the difficulties of celibacy,
an appeal
for control of the sex
by practical suggestions
method of attaining
as
to
the
that much-to-be-desired
end.
People
may
be unmarried either from
force of circumstances or choice.

force
of circumstances,
it
is
If
from
exceedingly
desirable that the urge of the sex inStin&s
should not be so insistent as to cause

9
distress,
10
them
or so powerful as to place
If celibacy
situations.
in difficult
from choice,
is
it
is
who make that choice

way of managing their
very helpful for those

to
know
the best
There
natures.
is
a strategic method of
approach which reduces the expenditure of

repressive force to a
minimum and
is
more economical of energy than the
much
frontal
attack of pure will-power.
The normal
towards an irregular
wife,
even
if
be the beloved
shall
the ideal
physical beauty.
no higher than
is
relations are but a
Illicit
substitute for this ideal
are not
but rather towards
life,
woman who
the ideal
man
of a
desires
nor
is
it
a good
thing that any one should be hurried into
marriage by the
insistent
physical nature,
instead
seek at his leisure for the
be
his true wife,
meeting
demands of
his
of being free to
woman who
his
shall
higher needs
as well as his lower.
Moreover,
instind
is
married
life
ability
as
to
necessary
regulate
for
as in single.
the master of himself if he
happiness
A man
is
the
sex
in
must be
to reach the
INTRODUCTION
full
manhood the
which we share with
Stature
Stin&s
of
kingdom should not have

dictate to us
physical in-
animal
the
power
the
we do not belong
to
our
to
bodies, our bodies belong to us, to be used
ends that reason, not emotion, shall
for the
determine.
It is
a tragic thing for a
man
be carried along by a tide of desire while
to
his
higher self rebels at the demands
his physical
needs which cannot be
of
satisfied
save by means which he feels to be degrading.
The problem
for
women
commonly
as
of sex control
well
as
a problem
is
men, though not
in so acute a form.
girl
often ignorant of the significance of her

feelings,
social
and owing
own
to the Sternness of the
code towards the delinquencies of her
sex, she
dare not dally with them
her danger does not
lie
and degradations of
illicit
in the discomfort
undue
is
so
much
so that
in the risks
sex expression as
and nervous disorders of
repression.
The problem
often
middle age, and
advice to be given to
becomes acute towards

have known the same
women
as
is
sometimes
13
given to men, with disastrous consequences.
We
should not regard a solution of the sex
problem
as satisfa&ory
degradation of any
which requires the
human
There are
soul.
some pradices which involve the degradation of another, and some which involve the
there mut be a choice,
suffering
and
of oneself;
degradation
it is
though,
better to inflid
on oneself alone rather than
involve another, the problem
to the blackmailing
the lower
self
to
not solved
is
by yielding
which,
if
demands of
by threats of
dis-
comfort and promises of pleasure, induces
do what we would not do

freedom of choice.
us to
The method
scribed
is
in dealing with sex
pra&ice.
By
in
we had
of sex control herein de-
based on
and women
if
many
years' experience
problems in both
both
clinic
men
and private
the methods herein described
sex control can be attained
and maintained
without Strain or repression, even in
difficult
or complicated cases of lifelong Sanding.

is
very
and the
much
effefl
easier than
it
of the method
It
appears to be,
is
accumulative,
INTRODUCTION
increasing in efficacy as
It
persisted in.
is
does not produce the Strain and nervous-
by will-power, nor does
ness of repression
it
it
13
produce sex-repulsion and incapacity
normal married
of the
that
forces,
life
which has
a lower
Did
life
it is
for
a true sublimation
using on a higher level
be denied expression on
to
level.
I desire to
commercialise
system
this
into a course of expensive correspondence

lessons,
it
profitable business,
help
is
made
could no doubt be
into a
the need for such
for
much more widespread than
who have
not worked
would believe
but
along
I feel
these
that any
human
ledge which can relieve
those
lines
know-
suffering
should not be kept secret for the sake of

profit.
It is
hoped that
this
book may be
of value to the educationalist and social
worker, as well as to those

solve problems of their
reason
the
chapters
adolescent are added.
who have
own, and
on
the
to
for this
child
and
Those who wish
to
teach this method of sex control to others
should note carefully the method of ap-
proach employed in these pages, because

is
it
based on experience in dealing with a
wide range of cases.

a
Firft,
really
motive for purity
vital
should be found and presented clearly to

the patient
next, specious reasonings should
may
be dealt with so that conscience
have a loophole
of the
standing
imparted
it
and
fads
this lat
might appear
control
is
man
or
be
should
of sex
more important than
is
to
under-
be,
for
sex
successful
impossible so long as sex
unsolved myStery
whether
thirdly, a clear
not
an
is
Fourthly, each individual,
woman, mui be
reconciled
to the sex side of his or her nature,
induced to accept
normal and whole-
as
it
and
some, but not to treat
it
levity, as it is too often
done when the taboo
of silence
is
removed
with familiarity or
they should learn to
regard sex, not as too unclean to be referred

to indiscriminately,
this
that
but as
too sacred.
sacredness of sex, rather than
should
be
emphasised.
its
It
is
dangers,
Fear
is
two-edged weapon when used as a motive

for
control, for
it
causes
things
that are
INTRODUCTION
better dismissed
from thought
15
to
haunt the
mind.
In
this
book
deliberately
avoid
the
consideration of the religious asped of the
problem because
hope that the followers
of every path that leads to the Light

find
my
it
useful.
may
say,
however, that in
experience of sex problems
that the
man
that matter,
religion has
one
who
or
woman,
may
have found
or child, too, for
who finds help

a much easier
has to go alone in his
in his or her
task than the
own
Strength.
II
OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS SEX
THERE are three
possible attitudes that
can be assumed with regard
On
the one hand,
it
may
to sex.
be regarded as
unclean, sinful, to be kept out of sight and
mind, and to be tolerated in marriage only

because
of the
physical
totally eliminating
may be
it
impossibility
on the other hand,
and drinking,
be
familiarise
advised
commonand we may
to
ourselves
with
method of continuing the race
Nature's
it
it
considered as natural and
place as eating
until
of
ceases
to
have the fascination of
myStery and novelty.

I
have seen both these methods
tried,
and
both have serious drawbacks, and yet in

each there
renders
it
Havelock
is
a foundation of truth which
impossible to ignore
Ellis,
its
view-point.
the great authority on sex

16
17
psychology, has very juStly pointed out that
if
the process of nourishment were surrounded
with the same myStery as the process of reproduction, the problems of catering would
be as dark and
sex
life,
difficult as the
problems of
and people would be
manner of experiments
which might be
in
trying all
diet,
some of
It
because
disastrous.
is
of the general ignorance of sex hygiene, and
consequent secret and unguided experimentation that

diseases
many
have
of our social problems and
arisen.
This cannot be disputed. Yet the universal
mankind to keep sex out of sight

cannot be without some foundation in practical experience, however perverted and
remote from reality some of its methods
instinct of
may have become.
We
have found by experience that any-
thing which causes us to think of sex
apt to stimulate sex feelings
do not wish
very
so that, if
we
moment to give expression

in a&s, we had better keep
at the
to those feelings
away from anything which reminds

them.
is
Familiarity with sex
is,
us of
unfortunately
for the
advocates of unrepression,
tuation to alcohol,
demands
modeSty
larger
For
We
the Stimulus if we
reason,
this
we cannot
a thing which
is
habi-
does not satiate, but
doses.
dispense with.
to
it
like
afford
mut avoid giving
do not
desire the resulting
reaction.
we should
suggest that
not from the Standpoint of
deal with sex,
wickedness,
its
nor of its commonplaceness, but of its sacredness.
We
should
realise
tremendous
its
potency on the mental as well as on the

physical plane
we should regard
it
as the
dired expression of the Divine Life through

the channel of our organisms
belong to
be used for our personal
we
are trustees for the race,
and unborn generations are

under
this
Divine TruSt.
of sex
life
and the
sex force
The fad
is
it is
that
incidental
does not
to
us,
pleasure, for
it
is
the essence
secret of right use of the
not ours,
it
This
beneficiaries
it
belongs to the race.
gives us pleasure in
to
its
real
objed,
its
and
use
is
simply a provision of Nature to secure that

objed.

The
inftind of
mankind
all
19
in all ages,
from the mot primitive to the moft depraved, has always
when
rightly used only
ends
as soon
gratification
rightly,
it
it is felt
it is
is
to
it
used for personal
Used
be debased.
;
used
becomes corruption.
No amount
of argument concerning phys-
can get away from the
iological necessity
fad that sex
wrongly used, puts
force,
mark on a man or woman. The

the eyes, the set of the
lips,
and
lines
the carriage of
it,
them unerringly.
sandified by the
Unless the sex force
intuition assesses
fulfilment of
well as the enjoyment of
Samp
its
round
the body, proclaim
puts the
is
used for racial
has a spiritual significance
it
wrongly,
as
that sex force
felt
its
its
is
duties as
pleasures,
it
of sensuality on the face
and form.
Marriage implies not only exclusive possession,
that
fail
but home-making
unlegalised
to
be
and the reason
unions almost invariably
permanent
is
because
home-
making, with the pleasures of hospitality
and neighbourliness,
is
denied to them, and
20
they satisfy only a part of the
therefore
nature.
People
lives into
may have the right to take

their own hands and do as
please in matters
their
they
which concern no one but
themselves, but in the sex relationship the
and welfare of a
rights
be
considered,
the
third person have to

possible
bring into the world a child for
home can be made,
and there
cruel wrong,
known
to
is
whom
no
to
do that child a
is
no contraceptive
medical science which
dependable.
To
child.
was present
at a
is
absolutely
meeting
for
and a leadwe have methods

which give a 90 per cent safety, but none
which give a 100 per cent safety, and not
the discussion of contraceptives,
ing authority Stated that
a single voice was raised in dissent.
The
only certain thing about contraceptives
is
their uncertainty.
The whole
ceptives
is
open one
their
question of the use of contra-
not only a vexed one, but an
and whatever may be
physiological
spiritual
advantages,
disadvantages,
there
said of
or
their
can be no

queSlion of their aesthetic offensiveness.
one would use them

It is
if
they could help
21
No
it.
preferable from every point of view
that the sex urge should be prevented from
when not
means
should be used to prevent the normal
completion of its adion when that adlion
has already commenced.
arising
desired, than that
Ill
MOTIVES FOR CONTROL
may
ITappear
be thought strange that
it
necessary to discuss motives for
purity, but a considerable se&ion of
thought, finding justification for
ophy
in the
way
its
modern
philos-
Freudian psychology, advocates
self-expression in sex as a truer
natural
should
of
life
than
and more
self-control.
Upon
a half-understood medical theory are based

a
philosophy and
ethics
which have an
immediate bearing on condud, health and

national welfare,
and
therefore
well to discuss the theory
it
may
be as
on which these
are based.
The New Psychology, having

that sex
lies
at the
discovered
bottom of many forms of
nerve trouble, has declared in no uncertain
terms the harmfulness of sex repression.
was
in close touch with the early develop22
MOTIVES FOR CONTROL
23
ments of psycho-analysis in England when

it
was believed that sex repression was
the root of
*
many
well as
to
this
pradice
other
solve
all,
that society
ills
is
as
heir
unsatisfactory
in
is
desire,
a form
them
more in sex life than

and with a great many
there
temperaments,
in
would
'
theory proved
physical
nerve problems, and that
all
unrepression
at
if physical
expression
outrages
that
spiritual nature, a conflid
found
moral and
the
is
is
set
up which
is
simply an aggravation of the original problem.
have seen much serious trouble
ensue from taking the rash advice that
is
sometimes given.
my
In
produces
which
sion,
is
we
opinion
nerve
it
is
not repression that
trouble,
but dissociation,
a very different thing.

refuse to
dissociation,
we
ad upon an
refuse to
In repres-
impulse
admit
in
to ourselves
that such impulses are a part of our nature,
and thereby deceive
ourselves.
If
we
shirk
facing ourselves in this way, our impulses,
not being controlled by consciousness, get

out of hand, and are very apt to express
24
themselves in indired ways and in curious
symbolic and perverted forms, thus giving
mental disease.
to
rise
who
own
refuse
and of
natures
develop
facing
'
the
in
life
the people
of
their
who
general
and not the people who,
fads,
determine on a
condud and adhere
of
line
kinks,
is
fads
the
face
to
It
to
specific
at
it
all
coSts.
The Freudian psychology
teaches
that
mot forms of nerve trouble are due to
between subconscious sex wishes
conflid
and an
holds
them down, and one way of resolving
the conflid
is
by getting
When
conscious.
1
re-education
*'
produces
freedom
which
been
this,
able
a
is
done by means of
dream
held
follow
is,
analysis,
to
constitute
as far as
up
it
of relief and
feeling
however,
to
rid of the repressive
this is
after
usually
cure
conscience which
artificially trained
the
have
subsequent
history of cases so treated, followed
by a
readion, because the conflid has not been

settled
but merely changed in form
for
MOTIVES FOR CONTROL

whereas, in the
25
Sate the social inStind
firSt
was holding down the sex inStind, in the

second Slate the sex inStind
harmony with our

as
fellows
urge
the
holding
and the urge
the social inStind,
damental
is
to
is
to
down
be in
jut as fun-
reproduce our
kind.
The
unrepression of the sex inStind
is
very
apt to lead to unlimited self-abuse, and the

demoralisation and degeneration that that
brings with
prime
so
This, in fad,
is
one of the
of psycho-analytical treatment
risks
much
it.
so,
that
was a current saying
it
at
who were Studying

although we could not
one time among those

psycho-analysis that,
agree with Freud that
with
sex
problems,
ended with them
all
our cases Started

of them
they
moSt
One
thing
is
quite
certain, that psycho-analytical treatment
is
the laSt thing for a case in which sex has

got out of control.
The
one-sidedness of the Early Vidorian
attitude towards sex has led to a readion,

juSt
as
that attitude
was
itself
a readion
26
from
Restoration
the
usual,
as
truth,
in
lies
and
grossness,
the
middle way.
the
Nothing which can grip men's minds and

consciences can be altogether without foun-
dation in truth, and because

dissent
we have
from a doctrine or system
as a
to
whole
we should not be blind to its truth in parts.

The Freudian doctrine is not so much
untrue as disproportionate
when
do
bear about the same pro-
healthy,
portion to
body
to the
something
whole
as a
life
as the sex organs
as a whole,
amiss
is
the sex forces,
it is
only
when
with them that they
bulk unduly large in consciousness.

This
large
instinct,
however,
mental aspect,
affected
is
when nervous
therefore
it is
when a nerve
having a very
almost invariably
trouble sets in, and
generally found to be morbid

case
is
psycho-analysed
then a morbid digestive system
common
in neurotics
is
just
and no one has
but
as
yet
suggested indigestion as the sole cause of
mental trouble
Sex
is
obsess the
a subject which
is
very apt to
minds of those who study
it
the
MOTIVES FOR CONTROL
27
investigator of sex psychology should be as

careful in his precautions as the investigator
of radio-a&ive substances, for he

liable to
to work, this
by
and
Studies
very
be affe&ed by the material with
which he has
realised
is
those
is
not sufficiently
who undertake
work
therefore their
is
these
apt to
be biased by the warping of their
own
natures under the influence of the mental
atmosphere
which
in
spend
they
their
days.
It is
never wise to read books on
when
those that plead for purity,
neither
at a time,
fatigued
wise to read
The
succession.
scientific
subjects takes his risks
which
even
them for too long

nor too many of them in rapid
is it
cautions,
sex,
worker in these
and
takes his pre-
but for the layman the advice
the
caterpillar
gave
to
Alice
in
Wonderland regarding the puppy-dog is

You let it alone, and it will
the wiseSt
'
let
you
alone.'
When
the
consciousness
problem
it
presents
itself
to
should be faced honestly
and courageously and a
line
of condu6t
28
decided upon, and then the subject should
be put aside.
To
upon
which
induce the very condition
is
it
it is
say
supposed to be desired
supposed
'
known
to
be continually dwelling
even
'
the
on sex hygiene
to
advisedly,
and
best
to avoid.
for
sanest
have
books
be read from morbid
motives.
As
to
the physiological results of con-
tinence, the
new work on
the ductless glands
shows that the important contribution which

the sex organs
body
is
due
make
to the well-being of the
to the interstitial cells, or frame-
work of the organs, and not

secretions themselves.
to the vital
These secretions
re-
present a tremendous output of energy, and
body has accumulated more energy

than it can use, and so has become congested
if
the
with the surplus,
it
gives a sense of relief if
way
but it is not the only use that can be made
of it
it is, in fact, a very wasteful way to
dispose of it, for when turned into mental
that surplus be disposed of in this
channels,
creative,
this
energy becomes potentially
and has an enormous
effect
on
MOTIVES FOR CONTROL
29
and capacity. The teaching on the

subjed of sex which is handed on from one
vitality
generation of youth to another declares that

sex experience
necessary to health and
is
the development of true manliness, but
should
fine,
noted
be
that
it
is
not
it
the
upstanding athlete whose sex desires
are Strongest,
but rather the weakly and
unwholesome-looking lad of morbid temperament, and sedentary habits.
The commencement of sex activity and

the slowing down of growth take place
simultaneously, for the simple reason that
the life-force
is
being diverted from one
channel into another.
This does not
mean
become giants, because growth

by other means than this, but it
that celibates
is
limited
does
mean
that
before maturity
if
is
expression
sex
begins
reached, growth will be
Stunted owing to the defledion of life energy
from the upbuilding of the body into the

intensely vital secretions of the reprodudive
organs, whether that defledion be caused
by adual intercourse or
this
reason
self-abuse.
For
animal breeders separate the
3o
sexes as early as possible in order to prevent
premature
the
sex
activity
which
spoils
development.
It is
quite true, however, that the time of
the development of the sex a&ivities
is
and always mut be so because

it is a transition phase, and also because the
knowledge that enables a child to underdifficult time,
own nature is often so

withheld.
The method of sex
stand his or her
unwisely
control advocated in these pages will be
found especially applicable

of the adolescent, as
it is
to the
problems
at that period that
sex control can be mot readily acquired
and
is
moSt needed in order to safeguard
the developing
life
through the
perils of the
upon the experiences of adult freedom.

If the perils of youth are to be avoided and
a happy marriage made, it is extremely
entry
desirable that the passions should not have
a casting vote in any decision.
The
a
woman
it is
so
sex relationship between a

is
very
much more than
man and
physical,
emotional, intellectual and spiritual, in
far as
those aspedts of the nature are
MOTIVES FOR CONTROL

developed in any given pair
intellectual
and
spiritual nature
and
31
if
the
be adive in
one of the two and absent in the other, the
companionship
fying.
is
incomplete and unsatis-
IV
THE PURPOSE OF THE SEX INSTINCT

order to handle the sex forces within
INourselves
we need to have a clear under-
Sanding of
but of their mental
their physical asped,
asped
and not only of
their nature,
as well, for
mind and body
and the imagination plays a part

life
interact,
in the sex
as well as the dudless glands.
It
also necessary to Sart with certain
is
basic
adion
concepts,
is
to
if
any
be arrived
satisfactory
line
of
These concepts,
at.
though philosophical in their nature, are

extremely pradical in their effeds, because
they
determine
towards
sex,
the
and
we assume
attitude
attitude
is
all-important
in this matter.
Let us ask ourselves,
Nature
basis
is
aiming
from which
at,
all
32
firt
of
all,
because
this
adion
muS
what
is
the
Start

there
no
is
Or,
other.
if
you wish
ask
Nature
What
We
is
God aiming
go
to
further back in the line of causation,
may
33
you
through
at
Nature works, not
see that
by means of individuals, but by means of

species,
it is
not until
life
has reached a very
high degree of development that the individual begins to have importance.
We may
conceive of Life as flowing out
into manifestation through the channels of
upon
millions
isms.
millions of individual organ-
This Life,
through
us,
pressing
expression
for
appears to us
as
the
great
fundamental inftin&s, and the chief thing
we have
is
to realise in regard to these inftinds
that Nature has adapted them
rather than personal ends.
This
to serve racial
is
a funda-
mental concept, and forms the basis of

attempts to control the inftin&s.
all
Even the
self-preservation intin& aims primarily at
and preserves
the individual simply as a means to that
end. That is why people cling to life under
the preservation of the race,
conditions in which pure reason might say
they were better dead
and
also
why we
34
deny
to
individuals
the
right
injure
to
themselves with degrading drugs like opium,

for the race preserves itself in the persons
many
of the
And
individuals
likewise with
who compose
it.
the reproductive in-
Nature aims at the continuance of
stinct,
the race,
not at giving pleasure to indi-
viduals
but because the achievement of
any
end
instinctive
is
and the
pleasurable,
reproductive instinct operates at high pressure,
the achievement of
end
its
intensely pleasurable than the
tenance of
inftinct
life
to
prompts
which the
us.
the maintenance of
more
mere main-
self-preservation
But were we
life
is
to achieve
only by means of a
great effort, the pleasure of the satisfaction
of that inStinct would be as great as the

pleasure of the
ductive instinct.
satisfaction
Who
of the repro-
can doubt that the
who escapes from the

sailor who is saved from a
traveller
wolves, or
the
shipwreck,
experiences a profound satisfaction
Let us therefore realise that the pleasure
we
experience
instinct
is
in
the
satisfaction
of an
incidental to Nature's purpose,

and does not
35
constitute the reason for the
The
exigence of that instind.
capacity to
derive pleasure from the use of an inslind
implanted in our natures because
and most
simplest
us to
make
effective
way
it
is
is
the
of inducing
use of those faculties with which
the instinct
is
concerned.
If
we
try
and
think of the purpose of an instinct as apart
from the pleasure

shall get a
its
truer concept of
gone much further towards
ment than we
shall
we
exercise can give,
do
if
it,
and have
right
manage-
we only
think of
its
our personal needs and desires in relation

to
it.
Let
make up our minds
us, then,
to this,
that the sex force within us does not belong

to us,
it
belongs to the race, and
only trustees for
it,
and that
if
we
we
use
it
are
for
personal ends such as physical pleasure,

is
as
if
money.
we were misappropriating trust

The beneficiary under the trust is
the race that

future,
it
and
is
to be,
the nation of the
whenever we
think
of our
personal needs and desires in regard to sex,

let
us
also
think of the unborn child to
36
which the
gratification of those needs
give
and
life,
for
whom
might
there can be no
home.
Whenever
let
felt,
us
make themselves
remind ourselves that we are
the sex needs
feeling within us the pressure of the Divine
Life
let
thing that
us
us regard
God
it
as the
mot sacred
has entrusted to us, and
make up our minds
lously clean, pure
and
to
holy.
keep
it
let
scrupu-
V
THE STRATEGY OF SEX CONTROL
MOST
people,
when
they try to control
the sex impulse, do
power, but there

this
is
it
much
by sheer
easier
will-
way than
and although will-power cannot be
dispensed with, there

a Strategical
is
method of
way
attack,
of using
it,
which makes
the task infinitely easier.
In addition to the physical machinery by
means of which Nature

of the race,
there
which operate
it,
carries
on the
life
are the nerve-controls
and
these
are juft
as
important and not nearly so well underStood

is
but for the purpose of
this
book
it
all-important that their nature should be
thoroughly grasped, because

lating
it is
by manipu-
them by means of the picture-images
of the imagination that the control of the

sex forces
is
obtained.
37
38
Supposing the idea of sex
arises
in
the
consciousness, certain physiological changes
immediately take place,
in the sex organs
because the mental image of the sex-idea

is
telegraphed along the nerves that lead to
these organs,
and they immediately prepare

Between times they
themselves for action.

are quiescent.
place
The
first
change which takes
an increased blood supply
is
parts concerned
mechanism
to the
by means of just the same
as that
which produces blushing
of the face in response to an idea.

If the stimulus be
withdrawn immediately
by, say, the attention being distracted, the
extra
blood re-enters the circulation and
the veins of the reproductive organs return
normal
to their
state
but
if
the stimulus be
continued, then the blood pressure in the
organs causes the cycle of sex activity to
run
its
Let
course.
be clearly understood
it
secretion
of the
resemble
the
kidneys,
which
stored
in
the
seminal
secretion
is
fluid
of urine
that
the
does
not
by the
made drop by drop and
bladder for periodical
dis-

This
charge.
a mistaken analogy which
is
has misled so many,

sex desire
is
39
who
think that, because
ftrong, the seminal fluid
muft
have accumulated within them and that

discharge
seminal
Whereas
imperative.
is
fluid
is
only
secreted
after
the
the
organs become engorged with blood as the
nerve impulse.
of a
result
follows
therefore
It
that if the nerve impulse can be
controlled,
and prevented from increasing
the blood supply to the organs, the seminal

fluid will not
Sex desire
be secreted.
is
caused by the pressure of
extra blood in the organs, not
accumulated seminal
die
which
fluid,
by the fad that desire
by pressure of
is
proved
may come up and
away repeatedly without any
secretion
being formed, and that sex desire
is
present
in the female as well as the male, that
continues after the glands have
power of
secretion
owing
loft
to old age,
that if the reprodu&ive organs are

after
the
age of puberty,
asped of sex desire
Our problem,
is
the
it
their
and
removed
emotional
unaffeded.
then,
is
to
control
the
4o
impulse which sent the blood to
original
the organs, so let us Study
its
workings.
This impulse has a circular motion, an

outgoing impulse from the brain to the
organs causing them to read, and a return
impulse from the organs to the brain which

causes the sensation to be
image
in
the
imagination
along
impulse
will
outgoing
the
felt.
sexual
an
send
but
nerves,
any Simulation of the reproductive
equally,
organs will cause sensation to be sent back
where
to the brain,
sexual image
either
will give rise to a
it
the impulse
end of the
may
circuit, either in
Start
at
an idea
in the imagination, or in a sensation in the
organs themselves
the sensation,
the idea gives rise to
and the sensation
and the impulse

round the nerve
ing Strength as
is
telegraphed round and
circuit several times, gain-
it
goes,
undesired
therefore the
sex
it
till
in the explosion of energy
orgasm
to the idea,
reactions
finally results
which forms the
secret of Stopping
is
to
break
this
circuit.
FirSt
of
all, let all
external Stimulation of
41
the organs, whether accidental or deliberate,
be carefully avoided
the impulse
on
is
circuit,
its
may
a
in
will
unless this be done,
continually be restarted
however often that
be broken by the mind.
Tight clothing
common
cause of Simulation, especially
growing
children,
Starting-point of
and
bad habits
is
;
often
and
a baby too long without attention

asking for trouble.
Being too
and having the bladder
w hen
r
meat
the
to leave
is
warm
simply
in bed,
over-full, especially
in bed, are also causes of Simulation

is
all.
a Simulant
also
and alcohol
of
circuit
is
the
moS
to a certain extent,
potent sex-Simulant
These fadors should
all
be dealt
with firS in order to clear the ground for

the
mental control of the sex force and
place
no
unnecessary
sex
image may
difficulties
in
the
way.
The
arise
spontaneously
or be caused by something read, heard, or

seen.
If
people
persiS
in
wholesome books and looking
reading
un-
at unpleasant
pidures, they will not be able to control

the sex forces, because they are conSantly
42
Stimulating them.
If they
associate with people
who
are obliged
to
indulge in talk
and innuendo on sex subjects, their task will

naturally be more difficult than if they were
with
more
wholesome
companions,
but
they can at least refrain from contributing

their
quota
to the conversational
The
mud.
method of thought control which I will

explain, will prevent impure suggestions
from entering the mind and gaining a
foothold there.
People
who have
generally have
sex problems to solve
some mental picture or
of ideas which gives
rise to
the desire,
this especially applies to those
in self-abuse
phantasy.
they invariably
set
and
who indulge
make use of
These mental pictures
rise
in
consciousness with extraordinary vividness
and cause strong sex
desire.
If the will
used to drive away these pictures,
it
is
merely
on them, and however

much the attention be turned away from
focuses the attention
them, they seem merely to be waiting their

oppoitunity to spring up again.
attack by the will often defeats
its
direct
own
ends,
THE STRATEGY OF SEX CONTROL 43

but WHAT THE IMAGINATION HAS MADE, THE
IMAGINATION CAN BREAK.
Look
it
right at the sensual image, visualise
clearly,
into
and then imagine
explode
Now
thousand fragments.
place deliberately pidure with

ness
to
it
all
in
its
the clear-
you possibly can, a mental image,
symbolic of purity.
See a
tall
white
lily
or a fruit tree in blossom, or a favourite
Smash
pidure of an inspiring theme.

ugly image and replace
one, that
is
it
the
with a beautiful
the secret of dealing with un-
desirable mental pi&ures.
When an image
has once been smashed
be the pale ghoft of
in this way,
it
former
self
on
after
has been dealt with a few times,
will
it
will
its
and
next appearance,
be gone for good.
it
may
True, others
appear until the physical conditions
its
settle
down, but they can be dealt with
in the
same way
all
as their predecessors
till
are
overcome, and habits of purity built up
which become
jut
self-indulgence.
It
fixed
as
is
as
habits
of
because habits that
are not used soon fade
and are
forgotten,
44
and
that
actions
become
that
habits,
for ourselves
persisted
soon
in
we can do
much
so
by mind-training.
dreams
If evil
are
trouble
the
the
sleep,
imagination can again be used for protection.
on an island
Visualise oneself as sleeping

set in a silver sea across
which no impurity
can come, or visualise guardian angels at

the head
and
whose
foot of the bed, into
presence no evil dare venture
or
if
the
temptations of the abyss be so strong that

they almost seem to be external to oneself,
imagine a great mailed archangel
like St.
Michael drawing a flaming
of pro-
tection
circle
round the bed with a
fiery
and himself standing on guard

you
while
sleep
secure
lying
on your breast
so that
not pollute that circle by
arising in sleep.
tion
all
that
and then imagine a white
circle
may
with
sword,
Always
night
magic
cross
you yourself
evil
thoughts
fight the
imagina-
with the imagination by exchanging
one image
for another.
VI
THE CONTROL OF THE SEX FORCE

previous chapters
INthethemental
half of the
impulse was shown

will deal
in
the control of
circuit
this
of sex
we
chapter
with the method of controlling the
physical half of that circuit.

It
mut be clearly
after
realised,
the sex reactions have proceeded
certain way, they will go
conclusion
is
when
makes
tions
however, that
the
the time at
firft
their natural
to Slop
them
rush of blood to the organs
itself felt.
until
on to
which
To
orgasm
dally with the sensais
beginning
is
very
undesirable and apt to cause nervous tension.

If,
however, the following sySlem of thought
control be used,
it
will
be found a com-
paratively simple matter to bring
down
the
blood pressure in the reproductive organs
and send the nervous energy to other

of the system and turn it to other uses.
45
parts
4-6
As soon
felt,
impulse makes
as the sex
concentrate your attention on the base
Attention
of the spine.
base of the spine because

nerves
control
that
Then
their origin.
Divine
hold of
in the
it
dedicate
idea of
direded to the
is
there that the
it is
the
God
"
say to yourself:
come within
Name
it
have
organs
sex
to
of
The
my
force has risen out of
life
consciousness and
and
itself
reach.
God Who
sublay
sent
His service."
it,
If the
does not appeal to you, then
name
lay hold of this great force in the
Humanity, or whatever
of
you
ideal seems to
the noblest, but always insist on seeing the

sex force in
highest aspect, see
pure and undefiled from
issues
source
it
its
as
it
its
Divine
never try to induce repulsion for
by thinking of the awful consequences
illicit
uses
may
were learning
in the road
would
it
bring in their train.
to cycle,
and you saw a
which you wished
find that if
could
hit
never
it
you
stone
to avoid,
you kept your eyes
on the stone you would

accuracy you
If
its
you
fixed
with an
achieve
in
gymkhana, and the more you reminded
47
yourself of the awful consequences of hitting
more you would wobble out
that ftone, the
of sheer nervousness.
the
that
People do not realise
bad effeds of the wobble of nervousness

is
induced by dwelling on the direful
consequences of the thing

avoid.
it
is
desired to
Dwell rather on the good that
will
be achieved through the thing that

desired to
do
this reinforces the will
it
is
with
and smooths the path in a

wonderful fashion. Always think of the
THING YOU MEAN TO DO, NOT OF THE THING
the
desires
YOU WISH TO AVOID.

Next
visualise the spine as a
hollow tube
and make a mental pidure of your hand

encircling
it,
and then, with
this imaginary
hand, begin to massage the spine with an
upward, squeezing adion.
Supposing you
had a length of soft rubber tubing that had

become blocked by some sediment, you
could get rid of the obftrudion and empty
the tube by drawing
squeezing
subftance
it
it
as
it
it
through your
fiSl,
went, and so pushing the
contained
conftridion in the tube
on ahead of the
made by
the pressure
48
of your fingers.
you are
It is
to use in
but you will find
the
same process that
imagination on the spine,

necessary to do
it
repeated pushes, gradually working your
up the spine with a stroking action, as

for a single
imaginary movement
impress the picture on the
As you perform
this
notice a peculiar thing,
mind
by
it
way
were,
it
will not
sufficiently.
you
process
will
when working on
the lower part of the spine you will find
considerable difficulty in doing what you

are trying to do, but as you
work up the
length of the column the resistance grows
and by the time you have reached the

shoulder-level, the invisible energy which
less,
you are
to
the spinal
its
imagine yourself
column
own accord
As soon
as
will
as squeezing
have begun
up
to flow of
instead of having to be driven.

it
enters the brain
it
must be
directed to the intellectual centres in the
forehead,
and you must picture yourself
as
having a third eye in the centre of the forehead, like the giants of old, and with that
third eye
looking
you must imagine yourself
out
to
be
on the world from a great

altitude,
you see
from
as if
it
49
from an aeroplane, so that
with a bird's-eye view, remote
Next you mut choose some
yourself.
movement that is of national

you mut then make a little mental
philanthropic
service
pidure of the work of that organisation

being carried on, and you mut projed the
energy you have dragged up from the base

of your spine in a radiant Stream on to that
yourself to
and then imagine

be taking part in the work and
willing the
energy you are sending to be
mental
little
pidure,
a driving force behind
it.
For example, supposing you have chosen

the
Save
special
pour
the
movement
force,
Fund
Children
into
'
as
which you wish
the
to
you would make a mental
picture of one of the food-diStributing depots
you do not know what they look like,

imagine how you would exped such a
(if
depot to appear, accuracy of detail does

not matter, you are only using a symbol to
assist
thought), and then pidure the force
from your forehead pouring in a golden

next imagine
Stream on to that depot
;
50
coming out of the door of the

building with a basket of food on your arm,
yourself
and
distributing
amongSt the Starving
it
children in their pitiful homes, and the lut

that has been in
for those children.
could then imagine to yourself their
joy and
relief,
pidure until
and dwell on this imaginary

you began to find yourself
feeling pleasure in
soon
be transformed
will
and compassion
into love
You
you
their gratitude,
you can induce
as
in
for
as
yourself an
emotion of the higher type, the sensation of

the lower type will disappear.
You can apply
this
idea to any
movement
which evokes your sympathy, but you mut

never send
this force
on
to
an individual
we know too little of the power of

the mind to be able to say what the result
would be
also remember this, that it is
because
not a method that can safely be used for
any form of mental healing.
Whether the
virtue of this system
lies
in
diStra&ing the attention from the sex sensations,
crying
as
one diStrads the attention of a
child
so
that
the
tears
Stop,
or

whether an adual energy goes
cannot say, but at
done, and
if there is
forth,
51
we
no harm can be
leaSt
a spiritual power behind
the imaginary radiance thus projeded, as

like to believe there
Whether the day
is,
will
much the
come when
so
better.
science
shall invent instruments that
can prove the
projedion of a diStind force,
do not know
experiments
have
been made with such
instruments, but their findings have not yet
met with acceptance by orthodox scientists,

but any one who tries the experiment I
have
outlined
will
be
soon
impression that some force
Whether
forth.
cannot be
said,
it
but
reaches
it
is
its
under
the
being sent
aim or
not,
certainly appears to
leave the body.
Now
what would happen

if the energy were merely brought to the head
and left there, without using the mental
pidure of social service and projeding it
let us
As a matter of fad,
thereon.
happens
Start
the
consider
nothing
in a few minutes the sex desires
again with renewed force, whereas,
if
mental image of projedion be used,
52
seems to be more or
their force
If the
of.
much
desires
start
again,
and the
keenness,
less
less
it
got rid
with
is
repetition of
the process two or three times will see the
end of them
In due
for the time being.
course the impulses will arise again in the

cyclic
adivity of overflowing
cyclic for a
its
man
periodicity
is
as for a
If a very
veins of the
anew
adive sex
in the
has
same
left
the
produdive organs more or
less
life
it
time for these to
down
settle
will
take a
little
to normal, but
is
persevered with, they will
quiet
down and come under
system
gradually
as
woman, though
permanently dilated,
if this
jus!
not so well marked, but
they can be dealt with
way.
life,
control, so that the organs shall sleep until
adivity
is
required of them.
Just as the
brain ceases adivity and sleeps
blood supply
is
reduced, or races
when
itself into
insomnia when the blood pressure

high, so also
do the sex organs
its
is
and
too
it is
the sleep, not the death of sex that should
be aimed at when
desired.
its
adivities
are
not
VII
THE POWER OF THE SUBLIMATED
LIFE-
FORCES
pages
am venturing a good
INdealthese
beyond what orthodox psychology
I
prepared to acknowledge, so
is
am
merely
going to explain a method of manipulating
mind which has been found by experience to give certain results, and not
the
involve myself in arguments by trying to
how these results

am now going to put a
explain
before
my
readers,
are obtained.
bold hypothesis
and advise them
to try
effects in practical application.
its
As
let
have previously said in these pages,
us conceive of the Divine Life-force as a
Stream of energy flowing through the channel

of each individual organism and turning
the wheels of
Stream
many
its
machinery.
waterwheels
53
may
On
a mill-
be ereded
54
on
may
one
different reaches,
grind corn,
and another may run a dynamo, but the

same millslream drives them all. Let us
then conceive of the Divine Life-force as
a single stream which,
if it
runs through
becomes
the machinery of the brain,

tellectual
thoughts,
great
thinks
activity,
in-
plans great schemes, paints great pictures
and
runs through the machinery of the
if it
muscles becomes physical
and
energy,
if
through the machinery of the reproductive

organs becomes sex energy.
this
Life,
energy as the manifestation of Divine

holy in
origin, sacred in
its
and never let us

caused by this
through
This
is
working
energy
Divine
of reproduction.
when
been
defined
The farmer
his fields as
'
dealing with super-
sex.
has
matter.'
it
action,
a point that must always be kept
abundant
Dirt
its
forget that sex feelings are
machinery
the
clearly in sight
calls
Let us regard
'
her carpets.
So
muck
it is
'
misplaced
speaks of the loam in
nice clean
filthy
as
'
if
with
soil,'
but
he treads
sex.
his wife
it
over
The marvel-
POWER OF SUBLIMATED LIFE-FORCES

lous
ad which
gives
the impulses of
life
55
a sacrament
is
dawning love beautify the
and ennoble the charader. Firft love

usually much more of the spirit than of
face
is
the body, there
clean in
desire
although the
idealistic fervour
its
to
nothing impure or un-
is
be near the beloved will soon
develop into the desire for a closer union.

It
is
the debasing of this sacred force that
gives a sense of pollution
and degradation.
The higher a
more debasing
its
downfall
disgusting
thing
is,
the eating of food
operation,
of sandwiches
packet
altar, the
the
is
is
not a
if
one
saw a
spread
out
on an
but
incongruity of such an
ad would
cause a feeling of repulsion.
The
debase-
ment of sex causes such acute
disguift
because
one inftindively
has
feels that it
come from
so high a source.
This
life-force,
spiritual source,
in
its
becomes
journey from
firSt
its
an idea in the
mind, then a feeling in the emotional nature,

and finally a sensation in the reprodudive
organs
we may
observe a similar series of
phases in the course of evolution, reproduc-
56
tion in the lowest forms of
life
mechanical ad,
the
feeling
then,
comes into
of humanity
significance
it
is
and
it,
thought plays a part
in
to
felt
Churches are asked
vertebrates
finally, in
man,
in the higher types
have a
and
well,
as
merely a
is
spiritual
therefore
to bless
All these
it.
aspe&s are present in each individual.

has
its
sensations,
ideals for
each of
and
emotions,
its
the
Sex
its
us.
In the previous chapter the problem of

the control of the
life-force
when
become
sex force was dealt with.
chapter
we
will
This
the
we
life
is
it
of any one
who
realise clearly that all
one dire&ion, we
answer
women
this
a very important point in
for use in another.
in
In
does not become sex
is
unmarried.
energy
is
one,
shall see that if we use a great deal of
in
had
deal with the control of
the life-force so that

force.
it
shall
It
have
less
may be
If
we
energy
available
pointed out
to this proposition that
men and
of genius have frequently had ex-
ceptionally Strong sex passions, but if their

lives
be Studied
closely,
it
will
be found
57
that their energies are exceptionally Strong

in
and
diredions,
all
but in
proportion
to
their
sex
the
reft
was
life
of their
nature.
If a great deal of energy goes through the
channels of the lower
the expense of the higher
we
our
focus
develop,
and
focussed
upon
Whatever
self.
upon
attention
if
can only be at
self, it
attention
tends
to
be continually
physical sensations, the whole
of the nature tends to coarsen and become
more
fleshly, as the face clearly indicates.
Many
people try to defied the sex forces
into their career
the
by working very hard
hope of draining them
lower
This
levels.
off
from the
a course which
is
seldom entirely satisfadory, though

generally understood
so,
and those whose
outlet advise
this
is
very
it is
not
should be
sex forces have legalised
their less fortunately placed
brothers and
sifters to
self-satisfied
belief
pounded a
why
in
'
work
that
they
solution of the
recipient of their advice
it
off
'
in the
have
problem
proif
the
would only make
the self-denial necessary to take
it.
They
58
forget that the
problem
one as well
moral one.
If
as a
a physiological
is
be recolleded that
it
it
is
the
self-
preservation inslind which prompts us to

build
up a
quite
career,
different
employed
herein
another
life
in
we
type
shall see that
of force which
which
that
to
one case
it
is
or ego-centric,
self-regarding,
it
second, the whole tendency
is
is
is
creates
exclusively
and
the
in
to overflow
into another.
not enough that an outlet should be
It is
found
for feelings that
would normally be
direded towards the mate, we must also

take into consideration that these feelings will
normally have the love of the child added

to
them
in
due course, preventing attention
from being exclusively direded towards the

mate, and thus over-developing the mating
asped of the reproductive

little
the
realised,
inslind.
It is
too
even by psychologists, that
home-making instind and the parental
inStind
inslind
are
part
of the
reproductive
and cannot be separated from
it
in
adual pradice, because the other two are
59
the logical outcome of the activity of the

It
firft.
even
for this reason that in the union,
is
if legalised,
in
which parenthood
deliberately avoided, the sex inStind:

to
grow unduly
unions
Strong,
and
is
apt
is
in unlegalised
the principal cause of the speedy
is
break-up, owing to the formation of other

ties
on the part of the man, which
is
usually
their end.
In choosing a channel for the sublimated
we mut
sex forces
to
their
therefore
pay attention
parental asped, and seled some
which the emotions of com-
adivity
in
passion
and protedion can flow out
in
service.
As has already been emphasised
in
these
pages,
the
life-forces
race, not to the individual,
race they mut be returned,
belong to the
and
if
it is
to the
not through
one channel, then through another.
If
we
do not serve the race by making and tending the bodies that carry out the racial
then
we mut
serve
it
life,
through social service
but in any case the tremendous creative
energy which urges us to mate mut never
be divorced from the equally divine com-
60
passion which urges us to tend and proted

the helpless issue of that mating.
not have children of the

children of the
we do
we mut have
we shall suffer
flesh,
else
spirit,
If
from sex repression.
may
It
be asked in
a person to do
who
resped, what
this
is
has to earn a living in
some monotonous occupation and for whom

no prosped of engagement in any definitely
work opens up
social
attitude,
his
service
of the
be on
the
service
to
come
his
not
if
energies,
his
to
the
and let him

any chance of
community,
look
any
Let him dedicate
out
living
for
creature which
may
way, and into that chance-flung
opportunity for giving a cup of cold water

let
him pour the unused
love-force of his
nature.
It
significant
is
that
the
present
proportion in numbers between
women, and
dis-
men and
the delaying of the marriage
age for economic reasons, reasons which

are
all
the
national
more
poverty,
through in
this
pressing during a time of
such
as
we
are
going
pot-war epoch, force on us
61
either the sublimation of a large proportion
of the sex forces of the race, or a welter of
promiscuity and contraceptives.
At the time when man was
Struggling
with the beats for survival as a species,
numbers were necessary

gaps in
the
tribal
in order to
ranks,
but
fill
when
the
his
numbers were
no longer depleted by the teeth and claws
of his rivals, and he therefore tended to
supremacy was assured,
his
overproduction, the resulting over-population being
brought down by epidemics due
to overcrowding.
in
our
But now comes the time
own age when,
epidemics having
been got in hand by isolation and sanitation,

wars are being caused by the pressure of
population becoming too great for the land
and which
the land of some
to hold the race that inhabits
therefore overflows
on
to
it,
other race.
Concurrently with
this
we
see the great
increase in organisation for social service,

especially such organisations as are
motived
by love of God and compassion for man

the people who carry on these organ-
62
principally
are
isations
unmated, and
it
is
the
childless
and
because the unsatisfied
love of these solitary souls overflows into

their
work that the organisations run by
voluntary workers are so utterly different

in spirit
and atmosphere
The
bureaucracy.
the
relieving
Lady Bountiful may both

and the
flannel,
soup
officer
give soup
may
and the
and
be better
no question which the poor
is
and
than the amateur product, but
in quality
there
official
run by a
to those
sick will
prefer,
go willingly and thankfully
into the cottage hospital
who
will struggle
desperately to avoid the infirmary wards of

the local workhouse.
The need
at
the
present
time
is
for
quality, not quantity in the children of the

race,
and the
make
better
general, or
social
worker who labours to
conditions
any
for
section thereof,
the race of the future just as
woman who
humanity
is
in
bearing
much
as the
labours in childbirth.
In primitive types of
life
the whole of
the creature was involved in the reproduction
process
nutrition
stops
while the living

jelly-speck grows a waift
and comes
63
in half;
but the higher we go in the line of evolution,

the smaller becomes the proportion of sex
life
to the total
In the highly organised
life.
communities of the ant and the bee, large

sections of the population never
sex
life
at
all,
but give
all their
it
looks
were gradually
human
being forced upon the
energies to
and
the service of the community,

as if a similar ftate of affairs
have any
If
race.
we
reproduced our kind at the Victorian
all
rate,
the Standard of
would have
diseases
but
now
in to readjust the balance
the opportunities
it
may
much
that each child needs so
tendance in order that
a great
in these islands
go down until the poverty
to
came
life
share in
all
that civilisation affords,
number of
potential mothers are
being absorbed by child welfare work and

education,
and
the
actual
mother
only
does a part of the service which the race

gives to each
new
generation.
Any work which makes
for
human
better-
ment and ennoblement contributes to the

life of the race, and therefore is a suitable
64
substitute for maternity or paternity.
Any
work which tends simply to self-aggrandisement keeps the life-forces within the circle
of the self and
is
of sex repression.
no solution of the problem
VIII
THE BUILDING OF THE HIGHER SELF
HAVE
make
tried to
sublimated
employed
to
it
sex
forces
build
the
poured out upon the
plain that the
should
be
not
personality,
but
race, because that
is
their natural
channel of flow, and no other
substitute
satisfa&ory.
is
an exaggerated egoism may
within the
self,
result.
however, the
If,
If they be used
life-forces are
held
and not allowed

they vitalise the whole
Steadily to the higher level

to
become
sexual,
mot extraordinary way
personality
in
and give
that peculiar magnetic quality
so
it
seen
rarely
present.
and
so
into the service of the race will
have
little
life
love will flow to
and
their
when
Those who have sublimated the
life-forces
noticeable
need
to
complain of a lonely
them from
companionship
65
will
all sides
be sought by
66
because they are radiating something
all
that
as vitalising as sunlight.
is
As Coue has very
we
deliberately
desire
we have
spontaneous
we
if
desire
to
to implant.
for
Therefore
turn the life-force into a
we have
seek,
substitute
in
and we can best find

some length of time on
channel other than the one

ally
certain
interest,
we wish
the ideas
some
find
to
in dwelling for
it
build
to
which are not naturally present
qualities
us,
truly pointed out, if
to
it
would natur-
perform
definite
mental exercises in order to achieve our

end, and these
The
I will
now
try to explain.
following exercise for the building of
the higher self should be performed daily
immediately on waking.
rest for
moment on
Let the thought
the animal centres at
and then run swiftly

column to the intelle&ual
the base of the spine
up the
spinal
centres in the forehead,
my
and
life-forces to the service
the race."
You may
say, " I dedicate
of
God through
then consider what-
ever quality you feel yourself to be lacking

in,
and
will
the life-force to flow in that

quality
and ftrengthen
it
67
you may
so that
be the better equipped for service.
But supposing you are following one of

the creative arts as your profession,
is
it
legitimate that
you should use the Divine
life-force for the
purpose of developing your
art ?
All creative ads are closely allied to
each other, and the fad that you are sending force to the higher self will increase the
creative vitality of whatever art or intellectual pursuit
you are following
deliberately send
but
if
you
the racial forces to the
creative centres of the mind,
you mut be
prepared to use your
the service of
the race
'
the
and not
swollen
ego
gifts for
for self alone, otherwise

'
will
be developed in
you.
Supposing, for instance, your
to
is
for
by the method
these pages, you would have
music, and you vitalised

described in
gift
be prepared,
in
it
addition
to
concert-
giving in the ordinary course of professional
work, to give a considerable proportion of
your time to playing

ftill
harder
task,
for charity,
to helping
and
also,
and teaching
68
who cannot
those
doing
this
all
whether
afford to
without thought of return,
advertisement
of
pay you, and

or
gratitude,
simply as your contribution to racial
you did not do
If
this,
and
life.
so insure that
the life-forces shall find expression outside

the narrow circle of your personality
limited ends,
its
art
you would
was taking on the
find that
brilliancy
and
your
of de-
generacy.
Supposing, however, you are one of the
rank and
the
file,
army of
or even of the Stragglers of
life,
mation of the
what
effect will the subli-
have upon your
life-forces
you have no creative talents that

can turn them to use ? They will give,
nature
firft
of
if
all,
a peculiar sense of poise, and
that sense of poise will soon be expressed in
the alteration of the carriage of the body.
There
lectual
will
also
alertness
come an increased inteland power to penetrate
into the nature of things

fact,
of
all
there will be, in
a curious quickening and intensifying

the higher faculties.
The mot marked change, however,
will
69
come in your relationships with other people

they may not know what it is that they feel,
but they will speedily become aware of
something, and that something is bet de;
There
scribed as personal magnetism.
is
curious buoyancy of the spirit which comes
when
the life-forces are circulating on the
upper
arc, also a freeing of the capacities
The
of the mind.
sublimation and dedica-
tion of the life-forces will give personality to
commonplace chara&er, dignity

the clumsiest figure, and spiritual beauty
the mot
to
"
to the homeliest face.

will
draw
The
all
men
unto Me," said
heart,
that
is
and the
lifted
Our
highest in every
soul that dedicates
have
forces to service will
up,
Lord.
draws towards
uplifted consciousness
itself all
be
I, if I
little
human
its
life-
reason to
complain of loneliness and negled.

This does not
give
mean
up ordinary wage-earning
thropic work, but

spirit
that anyone needs to
it
does
muft come into the
mean
life,
for philan-
that a
new
and that some
portion of your energy mut flow out in
making the world a
better
and happier
70
place for others, even for those you have
never seen, not out of any hope of gain or

gratitude,
may
but simply in order that there
be more happiness in the world.
IX
THE CELIBATE
WITH
LIFE
the exception of certain primitive
cults, all the great religions
celibacy as the higheft ideal of the

is
dedicated to
God
in
counsel
that
life
considering the
problem of the sublimated
life-forces,
we
therefore need to consider the question of
the ideal that prompts to celibacy as well

as considerations of
expediency and force of
circumstances which are the more
common
motives.
I
think, however, that there
is
often
some
misconception as to what celibacy consists

of.
can never
feel
that a refusal to give
expression to burning sex desires

celibacy.
lut after
"
Whoso
looketh on a
is
a true
woman
to
her has already committed adultery
with her in his heart."
Sensitive people
are very conscious of the desires that are

71
72
directed towards them, even if these desires

find
no expression
word or
in
my
mind, the
true,
due
to a love of
God
dedicated celibacy
by
cannot believe that
God
implanted in
themselves
and
take time,
is
forgotten.
especially pleased
He
has
for they are not evil in
us,
but the
and
it
of the inslinfls
sacrifice
is
so strong that all lesser
loves are absorbed
by the
To
adiion.
man
if
of the householder
ties
desires
to
give
himself wholly to the service of God, he
grudges the time demanded by the
charge of
mundane
mate those
whom
duties
with
that
be for those upon
as
he
is
without family
he naturally tends to communal

those
life,
like-minded
to
life
and
himself,
being designed to give freedom
from worldly
the
may
legiti-
they are laid, therefore he does not
assume them, and

ties,
however
duties,
dis-
simplest
cares,
will
description,
naturally
and
so
be of
we
get
and the clergy-house as the

natural outcome of an absorbing preoccupation with the things of the Kingdom,
the sisterhood
whether these be regarded from the asped
THE CELIBATE
God
of devotion to
The
LIFE
73
or service of humanity.
of religious celibacy
principle
is
an
absorbing love of God, not the impurity

of sex.
Sometimes, however, the urge of inftind
and
the
physical
themselves
method
have described
especially for those
deal
will
then
the
be found very
Ass,
whose work causes them
with the problems of purity in
who
and
others,
and
desire to
management of Brother
useful in the
to
God,
to
generations
who
the flesh of those
persist in
give
of
habits
their thoughts
therefore
away from
cannot
keep
the subjed of sex.
There should be no dissociation of the

lower
self in those
higher
who
desire to lead the
but they should " carry their
life,
manhood up
into
of sublimation
Godhead
" by the process
have described, and effed
a dedication of the life-forces to the chosen

service.
Many
by experience and
not,
and
method
but many do
souls arrive at this
their
intuition,
attempts
to
control
the
manifestations of sex by the dired use of

the will result in
an
intensification of these
74
manifestations because attention
is
directed
towards them, just as the fear of blushing
produces
invariably
mechanism
same
the
is
blush.
The
in both cases.
In judging the wisdom of the choice of

a
celibate
we need
life
motives that prompt
examine the
to
Many
it.
are called
but few are chosen, and not every dedication

that
is
be
to
offered to
sure
God
that
is
it
accepted
not
is
we need
pathology
based on shock causing sex repulsion which
prompts the choice
which draws, not
disgust
repels.
is
that
it is
love of
with
man
God
that
In the latter case, the sex problem
insoluble
till its
roots
have been
laid bare,
and the solution of the inhibiting complex is

more likely to lead to an ability and desire
to
mate than a
full
dedication.
The complete dedication of the life to

God is the highest ideal to which any man
or
woman
who
is
can
aspire,
but
it is
not everyone
ready for that dedication or whose
character would be acceptable to Perfect

Purity.
God
We
have got
in our everyday
to
life
come very near

and normal
to
state
THE CELIBATE
LIFE
75
we are ready for the

Divine Union, and for many the discipline
of consciousness before
of home-making
beSt suited to
the training which
is
is
them.
What we need
is
the clarity of vision
and
perfed self-control which prevents us from
To be
developing obsessions and fixations.

obsessed with the ideal of purity
is
not
less
part of the sex complex than to be obsessed
with impurity, for both spring from the
same root
the latter
action
in the subconscious mind, only

is
an adion and the former a
thought dwells constantly on the
if
we
when it
are juSt
of sex
denial
obsessed as
dwells on
The free-moving pendulum

through
it is
its
when
re-
it
as
its
much
sex-
gratification.
swings smoothly
and returns without pause,

Slicks at any point that it Slops
arc
the clock.
We
do not want
to dedicate a pathology
God, but an ennobled human life which

is
both whole and wholesome, with the
Divine Life-forces running Strongly and
to
Such
freely
on the higheSt
being in touch with the Divine Life,
life,
spiritual levels.
76
knows no sense of incompleteness or lack
when
celibate.
stances force
upon whom circumcelibacy would rise into the

If those
higher air of spiritual activity instead of

fretting
behind the bars, they would find
that they
had attained an inner
fulfilment,
and, being in circuit with the universe, they
were no longer incomplete.
THE SEX LIFE OF THE CHILD
THE
psychological dodrines of Freud
are a most important contribution to
modern thought, as epoch-making in their

sphere as was the do&rine of evolution,
but
they are liable to mis-
like evolution,
understanding,
and
exaggerations
abuse.
Wider experience has forced a retreat from

some of the positions which it was believed
had been conquered
in
enthusiasm, and though

principles
the
many
first
of the general
have found acceptance,
no manner of means certain that

deductions
made from them

layman
The teaching
life
New
all
by
the
it
is
as
Psychology
of the child has been
much misunderstood and

77
is
be very cautious.
of the
concerning the sex

very
to
it
will hold good.
While experts suspend judgment,

well for the
rush of
misapplied.
78
There
is
divergence of
great
scientific
and the two chief authorities on

the subject, Jung and Freud, disagree on
opinion,
important points.
So
that
far as
my own
we make
word
observation goes,
a mistake
think
when we apply
sexuality to the activities of a
the
young
same meaning with which

we should apply it to the same activities in
an adult. It would be just as misleading if
child with the
we were to use
the soft down on
the
word
'
whiskers
become whiskers
not done so yet, and
in time,
is
but
it
it
has
The
down.
still
for
True,
a child's cheek.
will
'
child-consciousness contains the seeds which

will
germinate into sex during adolescence,
but these are certainly not
'
sex
'
as
the
word is ordinarily understood. In abnormal

and pathological cases premature development may take place, but in the healthy
child the development
its
years,
and
it is
is
in proportion to
a great mistake to apply
the findings of abnormal psychology to the
we may thereby induce

condition we wish to guard against.
normal, for
very
the
THE SEX
THE CHILD
LIFE OF
rather than luSt that
It is curiosity
motive in the average child's sex

the impulse that prompts
it
average
puberty
is
The
the mysterious
the knowledge
'
it
parts of
others,
has obtained of the pos-
its
later date.
own body do
it
that certain
finds
body are more
its
is
woolly
better
than
sensitive
pleasurable,
plays with them, juSt as
former gives
not
sex knowledge until

It
rattle instead of its
the
its
and that the sensation
therefore
its
of grown-ups, and
'
of sensation in
much
of
receives concerning
it
ways
get associated with
age
does not apply to
It
the information
sibilities
curiosity
quite remote from any idea of
personal gratification.
itself
the
and
life,
under the
child
is
the urge for
is
adaptation to environment.
of the
79
ball,
results
it
shakes
because
than
the
latter.
If as a consequence of too
much
Stimulus
a premature awakening of activity
duced, then
we may
is
in-
get the development
of a true masturbation habit, but to regard

the universal investigation of a baby's fingers
as sexual activity
is
absurd,
it
investigates
8o
its
and nose equally impartially
toes
it
in
its
would be much more
'
activities, it deliberately
ignored a particular
part of
'
and
derives
is
not yet used to
from
interest
sensations,
and one of
after food,
is
Freud
excretion.
psychologies
see
interest in excretion,
sexual
but in
should be nearer the mark
young
child
sensation as such;
it
is
is
its
sees in its
and mot
in
factor
my
if
its
opinion
we
we
said that
interested in bodily
concerned with
sensory system rather than
mechanism, and the
all
its
chief interests,
its
interest in food a sexual activity,
the very
if,
anatomy.
its
new-born child
body,
marked
fa6t
its
its
reproductive
that the genital
organs come in for their share of investigation
does
not
necessarily
show
pre-
occupation with sex on the part of the

child
to
it is
come
in for
is
when they can be shown
more than
their fair share of
we can talk about unThe baby's view-point

adivities.
investigation
desirable
only
that
very different to the adult's, for he has
no repressions imposed by education, and
THE SEX LIFE OF THE CHILD

we have
point, if
to look at things
we
from
his
81
Sand-
are to arrive at the significance
Many
of his a&ivities.
a child
is
simply
puzzled by the line an adult takes with

regard
ads which have
to
significance,
but
which
for
speedily
him no
acquire
one from the importance which appears

be attached to them by the arbiters of
fate.
It
is
far
better
to
to
his
turn a child's
attention to other interests than to rivet
it
on the undesired adivity by admonitions.
With the growing complexity of a baby's

life, impressions coming from the outside
compete
for his interest
own
of
his
of
interest,
body,
having
with the sensations
and
earlier
been
explored,
abandoned in favour of more

activities, and it is not until the
tides,
rising
at puberty,
avenues
are
exciting
true sex
begin to flow in
the original channels, that he realises the

significance
this
of those channels,
realisation
and when
dawns, a very large pro-
portion of children pull themselves together
and break bad habits of

parents
and nurses
their
often
own
accord,
being ignorant
82
that these habits ever existed

rate
the information
is
number of
such at any
have received from
patients undergoing psycho-
analysis.
The
queSlion of co-education
a moSt
is
important one in relation to the child's sex

It
life.
be considered from two
should
points of view, however, for the reactions of
a child from a large family of children,
separated from each other as to age by a
year or two at moSt, a child of a natural

family, in fad, accuStomed to nursery inti-
macies,
quite different to that of the only
is
or child from a family of one sex
child,
only.
child
will
thing to which
accept unthinkingly any-
it is
accustomed, but to take
a child from a sheltered environment and

pitchfork
it
headlong into a mixed school
with sex teaching ad
lib.
from
Strangers,
is
to give that child a shock.

It is
argued that Nature mixes the sexes
in families,
same
and therefore we should do the
in our institutions, but
observed
that
in
species
it
with
is
not also
a
highly
THE SEX
evolved social
life,
Nature separates
The young males
lescents !
from the herd
come
THE CHILD
LIFE OF
to
83
ado-
the
are driven out
until such time as they are
and can take and
their Strength
keep a mate.
my
In
opinion, the
of the infant school
is
nursery intimacy
a good thing, but
consider that co-education during the

cult years of
Strain
puberty
is
'
diffi-
putting a very great
on both the educational system and
human
nature,
given a very
and that both
much
sexes can be
better training if they
are kept apart during the perplexing years
of emotional instability.
I
am
quite aware that this attitude
is
rank heresy in the eyes of the exponents of

the
New
Psychology, but
have often been
amazed of the capacity of the devotees of

that Still immature science for not looking
at things they do not want to see.
A very great feature is made in modern
psychology
fixation
of
of the
the
(Edipus
child's
complex,
affedions
on
parent of the opposite sex, and while
or
the
am
quite prepared to agree that this fixation
84
am
for
the
causes a certain type of pathology,
not prepared
admit
to
truth
its
average healthy child.

In assessing the parents' influence over
the child,
we mut
not forget the natural
hyper-suggeStibility
of childhood
enormous
of the
pre&tige
The
arbiter of fate.
and the
parent
the
as
child's affection for the
parent of the opposite sex to
its
own may
not be altogether unmotived by the fad

that the parent of the
same
The
the disciplinarian.
sex
father thrashes the
boys and the mother spanks the

administers whatever the
logical nursery
unavoidable
is
usually
is
or
girls,
modern psycho-
obliged to rely on as the
equivalent,
if
such
can
be
found.
We
have yet to
see
what manner of
complex the modern unrepressed child

develop
when
it
meets the pressure of the
world as a wage-earner, and finds in

week's notice
the
'
will
the delayed
much-needed parental
'
equivalent of
slipper.
XI
SEX ENLIGHTENMENT
THE
bet
child
method of enlightening a
on sex subje&s
is
another vexed
modern psychology. That the

old-fashioned method of a conspiracy of
question in
was bad, there can be no question,
silence
for
caused the child to
it
world and made the problem of

tion
to
an unreal
live in
his
environment much more
adaptadifficult.
Neither sex had an understanding of the

sex-life
and needs of the
other,
and had
to
work out the problem experimentally during

the early years of married
life,
often with
disastrous results.
On
the other
hand
it is
probable that the
reaction to an extreme frankness will also
be found to have
and
fear
which
to
its
drawbacks.
may have been
a poor basis on
build morality, but

85
Ignorance
if
they are
86
eliminated, something must be put in their
place to safeguard sex from misuse.
The more ignorant we
are of the physi-
ology of sex, the more difficult
it
is
for us
and the fact that sex is an

unsolved riddle makes life very difficult for
those whose upbringing has kept them in
ignorance. Even if a person is not likely to
to deal with
marry,
well for
it is
fads of
it,
them
otherwise they
life,
an unreal world, a
in
to
'
understand the
may
Fools'
that has no relation to reality.
be living
Paradise
We
need
to
study the processes of reproduction just as
we
impartially
as
digestion.
If the
formation
be
study
bare
hinted
at,
the
processes
minimum
certain
of
of insections
revealed to the boy, and certain sections

the
to
girl,
and the
rest
still
shrouded in
mystery, the real value of enlightenment
is
lost.
Sex physiology should be dealt with from

the
not
scientific,
aspect
when
it
is
from
the
sentimental
being imparted.
The
processes of reproduction should be studied
without
personal
reference
and
without
SEX ENLIGHTENMENT
apology
they
when
emotionalised
and the
dealt
should,
idealistic
and
with separately.
needs
is
given,
it
of the
de-
ethical side should be
Sex knowledge
but
of,
is
a thing
it is
When
be handled carefully.
ledge
be
fad,
in
they are being taught,
not a thing to be afraid

to
87
sex
know-
should be adapted to the
recipient.
should
child
never be deliberately misled, but neither

should he be encouraged to look upon sex
as a
commonplace phenomenon,
sing situations
may
or embaras-
From
result.
the earlieft
years a child should be taught to regard the
Coming
of Life as a sacred myftery.
It is
impossible to give any adequate idea of the
physiology of procreation to a very young

child,
and
in
my
opinion the beft
may
deal with questions which

questions
way
to
often be idle
and asked with no glimmering of
their significance,
is
to
tell
the child the
thing he has noticed concerns the Great
Myftery of the Coming of

he will be told
comes
for
until then,
him
it is
all
to
about
it
Life,
and that
when
the time
know about such
a sacred secret.
things,
88
As soon, however,
definite
children
as
regarding
curiosity
sex,
show a
as
dis-
tinguished from a natural interest in the

inexplicable behaviour of the family pets,
let
them be
told that if they really desire
a knowledge of the sacred secret,
given them, and
let
sex knowledge be
made
This will Stamp
it
shall
be
the communication of
a solemn initiation.^
with the association of
it
sacredness and reverence, from which no
subsequent experiences will ever be able

entirely to divorce
and
it,
will
effectually
from the dangers of igno-
shield the child
rance without cheapening the mot sacred
myStery of life.
To my mind,
the forced casualness with
which enlightenment
illustrations
is
often given,
with
from the garden and farmyard,
debases and familiarises the whole concept,
and makes the love of man and woman

appear a very simple and commonplace
affair,
which
it
is
not.
Although
our
methods of reproduction have a very great
many
points in
common
other vertebrates,
it
is
with those of the

not those aspects
SEX ENLIGHTENMENT
89
which need emphasising, but rather those

which are characteristically human and
serve to distinguish us from the animals.
Sex purity
is
not adequately protected by
a veil of ignorance, nor yet by threats of
and disgrace
its
own inherent
myStery and sandity is its beSt protection,
and if this asped of it be presented to the
child-mind on its firSt enquiries, the impresdisease
sion will be ineffaceable.
The very young
child,
of puberty, shows, in
inclination
to
nature.
ups,
to the
is
dawning
experience,
little
of re-
idea
the
possibilities of its
forms a part of the
It
and
my
associate
production with the
up
own
life
of grown-
too remote to affed himself;
he regards the sensations of
his
body
as
having no connection with the mysterious

process whereby his father and mother gave
him
life,
him,
it
and when the idea is presented to

makes a profound impression, and
the child
awe-Struck
is
powers that
is
no more
lie
when he
realises the
hidden within him.
effectual
way
There
of keeping children
from undesirable practices than
to tell
them
go
that the organs with which they are playing
them to be
fathers and mothers in the future, and that
if they do not treat them with very great
care and reverence, they will spoil them.
One of the mot effedual ways of impresare the ones that will enable
sing older children in the early 'teens at a
time
when
ethical
to
make them
ideal to
this age,
religious considera-
be looked upon as
tions are apt to

is
and
feel the
'
tosh,'
pride of race, an
which they very readily respond
and
to
show them
at
that they are
the inheritors of the greatness of the pat
and that they mut hand on the torch of

life
undimmed
them
to their successors.
realise the
Make
powers within them, and
they will respond in a moft remarkable

fashion to the appeal.
mut
Tell
them
that they
treat their bodies with reverence so
that a fine
and
virile
race
may
them, and they will fight their
spring from
own
battles
with bad habits far more effe&ually than
any amount of threats and supervision can

induce them to do.
I
have always found that even quite
SEX ENLIGHTENMENT
91
small children will take sex very seriously,
and adolescents
will
respond magnificently
to the ideal of racial responsibility at a time
when
religious
often leave
The
them
religious
and
ethical
cold, or
life is
appeals
even contemptuous.
not a thing which can
be forced into a&ivity,
?.nd
unless
spontaneously a&ive, an appeal to
supply no motive.
will
it
it
is
will
XII
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MODESTY
THE
little
of any
of modefty
significance
understood, and
to
me
am
very
not aware
thereof
explanation
psychological
which appeals
is
as satisfactory.
Pro-
Weftermarck, in a paper read before
fessor
the British Society for the Study of Sex
Psychology, suggested that the inftinct of
modefty was implanted in the race by the

fact that those
for the
found
from
engaged in the sex act were
moment
it
advisable
to
and
therefore
themselves
conceal
their enemies.
This appears to
explanation,
much
It
defenceless,
me to be a mot inadequate
and
as
remote from
laboratory psychologising
seems to
me
that
we should
is
life
as
apt to be.
recognise two
types of modefty, the spontaneous shrinking,
and the demureness practised

92
for
fear of
herd censure for immodesty.

is
perfectly
adolescent
in
care,
sex
is
and merely
in
not modeSt so
whom
child
an
but
creature,
undeveloped
The
juSt
child
doesn't
defers to the opinions of
grown-ups with regard

is
young
a very shy person.
is
whom
blatant
93
much
to
He
propriety.
as polite.
The person
sex forces are developed, however,
will lean either to shyness or display
and
the Stronger the forces of his nature, the

further he will lean in either direction.
The whole
issue
seems to
me
to hinge
on
the question of appetite, whether the indi-
vidual
is
in a Slate of hunger or satiety.
When we
are
hungry the smell of food
seems delicious, but after a meal
and
disgusting,
so
with sex
it is
But in the case of sex we have

that
there
emotional
may
is
fa dor to
be in a
abStrad, as
it
very
large
seems
desires.
remember
mental and
to
be considered.
State
it
A person
of sex hunger in the
were, but
when
it
comes
to
the adual prosped of satisfying that hunger,
a number of
istic
aeSthetic,
emotional and ideal-
considerations have to be taken into

account. A Starving man will not eat
94
grass,
and until a person is thoroughly debauched

and demoralised he will not look upon
any and every specimen of the opposite sex
as a possible mate.
We
mut therefore have an emotional
well as a physical hunger before
prepared to mate
hunger
State
and
shall
of the person who, after a
smells food
sex-call will
and
is
are
complete
if this
we
not present,
is
we
as
be in the
full
meal,
nauseated thereby.
The
evoke repulsion, and the fador
of a6tive repulsion in the absence of desire
my
is,
in
for
we
if
opinion, at the root of modeSty,
inStin&ively avoid arousing sex desire
that attention
not welcome to
is
These considerations do
not,
us.
of course,
apply to a nature that has been debauched,
whose modeSty
that
is
then of the demure type
pays tribute to the force majeure of
public opinion
unspoiled,
it
will
but
when
one whose admiration

inclination
to
towards
tend
sophisticated display of
the nature
is
an un-
charms before the

is
desired,
and an
keep quiet or hide in the
95
presence of the bold suitor whose attentions

are not welcome.
In fad, the essence of modeSty
avoidance
of
the
is
when
provocativeness
sex
advances are not desired.

It is in this that all
customs regarding the
avoidance of anything suggestive have their

psychological root and
ing indecency
It is not,
and obscenity
its
regard-
justification.
of course, possible to regulate by
law what people

private,
all legislation
and
do
in
attempt to do so by means
to
of legal penalties
blackmail, but
shall or shall not
to
is
we can
open the way
at leaSt see to
it
to
that
sexual Stimuli are not forced on the attention
who do
of those
not wish to be Stimulated,
and therefore the prohibition of the public

sale and advertising of pornographic literature, the presentation of
and of
soliciting
opinion,
in
obje&ionable plays
the Streets
is,
in
my
moSt emphatically in the public
intereSt.
Young
fellows
in
the
later
years
of
adolescence can be so cleverly wrought upon
through the eye and ear that they are no
96
more mailer of their own adions than they

would be if they were drunk, and in such
a slate they are at the mercy of harpies.
I
do not advocate a censorship of publica-
tions or of art exhibitions or private per-
formances of plays, because

difficult to say
what
is
and one generation's
it is
extremely
artistically justifiable,
'
shockers
'
are
the
next generation's bores, neither should any

limit
be
set
to scientific investigation
the communication of
students,
but
the
its
erotic
obtainable by those
who
results to bona fide
should
only
it,
whether
motive be good or bad according to
popular standards
it
should not be forced
on the attention of those who do not

it.
be
definitely set out
with the intention of obtaining

their
and
Therefore
desire
advocate the restridion of the
public and indiscriminate proffering of any
form of suggestiveness, and of the advertising of any type of sex interest or any form
of propaganda of immorality, but
do
not
advocate any legislative attempt to prevent

the private pursuit of such interests,
firstly,
because of the difficulty of determining what

is
legitimate
and what
under any
not,
is
given set of circumstances
97
and secondly,
the impossibility of enforcing any such set
of laws without the assistance of the spy
and informer, who are very apt
make
to
the assistance of juStice a by-product of the

chief industry of blackmail.
The immature
are already proteded from
who have
outrage by the law, and those
advances
made
to
have the option of declining
desire,
the advances are
adion
them which they do not
made
in
for assault,
or, if
forcibly, bringing
an
which case the law,
though quite rightly demanding independent

evidence,
offender
looks
when
solution of the
lie
this
so
much
in
with
the
upon
severity
case
is
proved.
the
The
problem of purity does not

the changing of the law in
resped, as in a more effedual enforce-
ment of the law we already have, and this

is beset by certain difficulties, which would
apply equally to any law that might be
framed.
In the
firSt
difficult to get the
place,
person
it is
who
exceedingly
is
the
vidim
of any sexual outrage to prosecute or even
98
give evidence, because the loss of virginity

is
so seriously regarded, even if the virginity
be
loft
through rape, and the vidim be
entirely innocent of
is
any moral
It
fault.
only the very public-spirited or the very
vindidive
who
will
prosecute under such
circumstances.
The
publicity of our courts
may have
beneficent effed on the administration of
ju&ice and a deterrent effed on certain

of crimes, but
classes
it
certainly has the
very opposite effed in certain other
classes,
where the criminal trades on the knowledge
that
his
vidim
will
publicity of a prosecution.
for
if it
Sunday
face
the
The only remedy
them in camera,
means depriving some of the
such cases
even
not
is
papers
to hear
of
their
principal
news-
items.
Wholesome
publicity can be maintained
by having a brief report of the proceedings

printed with all names and means of
identification left out.
XIII
THE PROBLEM OF SELF-ABUSE
SELF-ABUSE may
artificial
the
sex
and impartially
that
wants
be looked at calmly
to
if it is to
it is
is
be rightly under-
Some
dealt with.
self-abuse
others that
the
and the whole problem
organs,
and
as
production of the reactions of
arising out of it
stood
be defined
deadly
people hold
danger,
entirely innocuous.
and
Speak-
ing from a wide experience of masturbation

cases,
concept
of
am
is
of the
opinion that neither
a fair statement.
The amount
harm done by masturbation depends
upon the extent to which it is

but though nobody can be at
practised,
their
best
either mentally or physically while indulg-
ing in this habit, which

one,
is
have never known
physical
effects
behind,
99
a very exhausting
it
to leave lasting
and recuperation
ioo
when
rapid
is
is
it
breaking of the habit of self-abuse
when
matter
difficult
The
discontinued.
is
not a
psychology
its
is
understood.
has been
It
my
invariable experience with
regard to those addicted to

I
and
this habit,
have dealt with a very large number of

that
cases,
and mental
partner
they invariably
pictures to supply the lack of a
in
phantasy
phantasy
use
pleasures,
their
lies
and
in
this
the key to the problem of
self-abuse, for if
it
ad
be avoided, the
gives
the purely negative satisfaction of physical
and soon
relief,
to
loses its
power and tends
be discontinued.
The
physical
actual
of
reactions
abuse are exactly the same as
normal intercourse,
it is
emotional
that
felt
and
aspects
it
is
in the
the
self-
those
of
mental and
difference
is
because the whole of the
higher significance of sex
is
lost
that
its
baser aspects are exclusively developed by

this practice.
As
far as the physical evils
of self-abuse are concerned, they

in the
lie,
premature development of sex
firstly
activity,
101
and the consequent checking of the general

growth and development
and secondly,
as do the ill effe&s of normal intercourse,
;
even in marriage, in overdoing
it
and
as
means of satisfaction in self-abuse are

always to hand and coft nothing, it is
the
exceedingly likely to be indulged in too

freely when
If a
once the habit has been acquired.
man
has a large bank balance, he
can afford to spend large sums without

overdrawing, but
if his
he will soon cripple
income be
his resources
The amount
expenditure.
small,
by prodigal
of energy that
we can afford to express as sex depends on

the amount of general energy that is available, and if we expend too much, we shall
suffer
from exhaustion, be
and an easy prey

to
married
life
unfit for work,
to disease.
juit
as
much
This applies
to
irregular
unions and self-abuse.
On
excess
the other hand,

is
recovers,
do not
as
soon as sexual
discontinued, the syStem speedily
and
for this reason
hesitate to
some doctors
recommend masturbation
as a solution of the sex
problem.
There
is,
102
however, a certain after-effed of self-abuse
which has
be reckoned with
to
adopted by adults, and that
is
if it
be
the formation
of a definite habit of sex reaction, so that
none other
possible,
is
This
for marriage.
woman
case of a
and they are
not so serious in the
is
as
unfitted
a man, because she,
being the passive partner, can gradually
new
acquire
of a
few
married
aftive
reaction habits in the course
months'
life
experience
of normal
whereas a man, being the
partner,
readion habits,
if
he
acquire
will find himself
abnormal
unable to
respond to normal Stimuli, and therefore

play his part, and he cannot
unable
to
acquire
new readion
because he
Therefore
is
habits
by experience,
unable to make a beginning.
consider masturbation a
much
more serious matter in a man than in a

woman. It also in both sexes produces
inability to feel sex pleasure if much indulged
in,
and
so
is
apt to lead to abnormal forms
of gratification.
Playing with the genital organs
is
almoSi
universal in small children, but there
is
103
between a child experimenting with a vague and undeveloped
great
difference
sensation the significance of which
it
does
and the confirmed adult mafturbator on whom this form of gratification

has become a fixed habit, rendering normal
not
realise,
relations impossible.
certain
ceedingly
common
adolescents,
and
is
amount of
and
in
self-abuse
is
older children
as long as
it is
not seem to leave any after-effeds

It
is
and
not excessive
not continued into adulthood,
has been discontinued.
ex-
it
does
when
it
a great mistake
and frighten children out of this habit

by telling them of the dreadful diseases it
brings
in the firft place, it is not true, and
to try
in
the
second,
problem
to
it
fixes
thought
be solved, which
is
with by thinking of something

getting other interests.
on
the
bet dealt
else
and
have indicated in
the chapter on sex enlightenment the line

I
should
take
in
such
cases,
and
this,
together with wise attention to hygiene and
regime, and inftru&ion in the sex control
methods explained
in the earlier chapters,
104
But never on
ought to solve the problem.
any account threaten a child with permanent disability as the result of
his actions,
even
because the
seems likely to
if it
result,
consequent auto-suggetion of fear
and may even lead
disastrous,
chondriasis.
is
mofl
hypo-
to
should never advise anyone
to try self-abuse as a therapeutic measure,
although
know
it
mended even by
as
is
sometimes recom-
men
medical
qualified
a means of transition in the difficult
journey from debauchery to continence in

cases
where the sex problem
difficult one.
is
very
There are medicines which
have the effed of lowering the sex pressure,
and the use of these
is
much
to
be preferred
to acquiring the habit of self-abuse,
which
merely substitutes King Stork for King Log.
Such a method
is
analogous to the use of
habit-forming drugs,
a
crisis
in
regularly,
an acute
they
may
illness,
tide
but
if
over
used
produce a disease of their own.
The other alternative more frequently recommended, of resorting to those vidims of

society, professional prostitutes,
is
a course

as risky to health
and reputation
105
as
it
is
abhorrent to decent feeling.
The method of thought-control recommended in these pages, if followed with

and common
persistence
prove
sense, will
adequate in nine cases out of
ten,
whether
those cases be of a normal sex impulse or
The
of self-abuse.
tenth
cases
to
may
see
however,
and recourse should
requires further help,
be had to a dodor
case,
who
specialises in
such
whether any physical cause
be at the bottom of the trouble, and
under
supervision such treatment can
his
be followed as
relief
will
probably give great
and make the problem of acquiring
self-control very
much
any case where sexual
In fad, in
easier.
excesses
have pro-
duced a neurasthenic or exhausted condition,

it is
as well to
have medical advice,
much can be done
in the
way
for so
of building
up the depleted nervous syftem and improving the general health.

to
work
out
the
It
problem
is
much
easier
of acquiring
when the general health is

good than when the nerves are all to pieces
self-control
io6
and insomnia has
become an additional
problem.
Nevertheless,
such
physical
helps
as
good dodor can afford should only be used

as a
means of
tiding over a difficult time
drugs should not be regular articles of
and
as
the sex problem
adolescence to
to
manage
it
senility,
is
sin
is
on a
diet,
with us from
we ought
to learn
by the normal means of
maftery through thought-control.

to rely
self-
To have
bottle of physic to keep us
unmanly.
from
XIV
ABNORMAL FORMS OF SEXUALITY
WE
might define the normal form of
sex relationship as that which leads
to the procreation of children.

all,
is
Nature's aim,
Nature's
aim,
we
and
are
This, after
we
if
doing
frustrate
something
unnatural.
Abnormal forms of
sions, are
sexuality, or perver-
uncommon
not as
as people
who
have not Studied the matter may think, and

the reason they are referred to in
that
is
this
book.
Self-abuse
abnormal form of
is,
sexuality,
of course,
an
and therefore
a perversion, but the next moft
common
is
homosexuality, which has been greatly on

the increase of recent years.
Homosexuality
is
the
produ&ion of sex
readions by or upon one of the same sex.
There
is
no need
in a
107
book of
this nature,
io8
intended for the lay reader, to go into the

details
of any
of the
perversions
such
information often has the effed of Starting
people upon the pradice againSt which
warns them,
not
to
resiSt
know
it
jut as Bluebeard's wife could
the forbidden
room
that the sex inStind
it is
sometimes
is
subjed to deformities so that
enough
these, if they
be met with, can be recognised and underStood.
In homosexuality a love
one of the same sex such
beStowed on
is
be given to one of the opposite
may
love
sion
may
or
normally
as should
sex.
This
not find physical expres-
not every person with homosexual
impulses descends to the pradice of unnatural vice
person
who
he or she may,
loves
like
any other
some one they cannot
marry, kfcep the expression of their feelings

within the bounds of propriety, and some
of the world's bet work, especially in the
arts,
has been done by people whose feelings
could have no natural outlet.

clearly realised, if the
understood
It
homosexual
and helped, that
his
mut be
is
to
be
feelings

appear
that
gives
him
to
109
be pure and natural, and
to
normal love makes no appeal and

no satisfaction
he is, however, in
;
the position of a person
who
is
not able to
offer
marriage to the objed of his affedions,
and
to offer love
honourable
suffering
in
under conditions
dis-
consumptive,
like the
is
and can bring nothing but

its train
and therefore he,
is
forced by the nature
of his malady to deny himself the gratification of his feelings.
Some
incline
schools
to
the
thought
of psychological
opinion
that
homo-
the
sexual represents a third, or Intermediate

Sex,
and that
his view-point
ought to be
but anyone
who
accepted as normal
Studied the subjed
and seen the effed of
has
unnatural vice on the nervous system cannot

fail to
see that the
mal and harmful.
whole condition
is
abnor-
It is also infedious, for
the homosexuals, unlike the mafturbator,
needs a partner in his pleasures, and therefore
is
always on the look-out for possible
converts,
is
and
as the habit of unnatural vice
easily acquired,
and once acquired, not
no
so easy to break,
it
a serious matter
is
homosexual propaganda
munity.
if
any com-
Starts in
have seen a wave of unnatural
vice go right through a hoStel for professional
women, and many a
neurotic can trace the
beginning of his troubles back to unfortunate

incidents
Experienced school-
school.
at
makers know what
to
look out
for,
and
expulsion follows quickly on dete&ion, but
home-keeping
formed.
women
are not so well in-
They need
to
know
that
two people of the same sex play
husband and
when
at being
wife, indulging in the kissing
and cuddling one usually associates with

engaged couples, and show the intensity of
emotion and jealousy of a passionate love
affair, all is
not well.
There are two other types of deformity

of the love nature which need to be under-
may be
common
Stood in order that they
recognised
they are not nearly so
as the types
we have
already considered, but
when they
occur they cause a great deal of trouble
and
misunderstanding
very
often
not
because
understood
they
even
are
by the

who
known
person
are
is
as
experiencing them.
These
sadism and masochism, so
two
called after
1 1
who made
novelists
these
forms of love the basis of their novels.

sadism, the idea of cruelty
and
the idea of love,
murders
is
is
the cause of
which
life
revealed in divorce court
chism, however, the idea
many
of
is
sometimes
Stories.
In maso-
is
to inflid suffering
and much morbid jealousy has
on
oneself,
its
root in this cause.
The psychology
both sadism and masochism

-
associated with
an unnatural violence
as well as
temper in married
their
In
treatment
Still
more
is
of
obscure, and
but
so,
their
nature should be understood for two reasons,

firStly,
people
is
because the method of dealing with
who have
quite different to
who
is
The
deliberately wicked.
mation a person
impulses
emotional
dawns, he
may have
a&ed upon
excitement,
is
handiwork.
it
firSt inti-
that one of these
present in his nature
is
that he has
his
abnormal impulses
that meted out to one
these
in a
and
as
is
to find
moment
of
realisation
bewildered and horrified at
realisation of the nature
ii2
of the weakness
its
often sufficient to prevent
is
ever being allowed to get the upper hand
and
again,
he or she
is
if
the injured party realises that
not dealing with a case of moral
delinquency, but rather with a pathological
impulse of the same type that causes people

to turn
giddy and
fall
off ladders, compassion
will take the place of fear, hate or disguft,
and a
soul be saved that
would otherwise
be thruSt into the outer darkness of social

ostracism.
Secondly, the
Stories
told
by those who
are the victims of sadifts are so wild that
they are frequently not believed and attributed to hySteria, but

to set a limit to
what a
it
is
very
real sadift will
and the fact that a man or woman

and kindly in other relations of
evidence in disproof of sadism.
women
difficult
is
do
normal
life
Now
is
no
that
upon juries, they will frequently

have to pass judgment on the handiwork of
a sadift, and they need to underhand things
from
sit
which they
sheltered
it
was
have
previously
been
for this reason that there
arose the better type of opposition to giving

the suffrage
but
it
is
women
when men and women co-
and
only
113
civic
rights
to
operate in dealing with the problems of

sex that they can be solved,
and while a
woman's Standard of purity makes her

in her
condemnation of
compassion
sinner,
sin,
makes her seek
her
to
and while safeguarding
Stern
spirit
save
society,
try to heal rather than to punish crime.
of
the
to
XV
WISDOM
IN
LOVE
these days of free social

INbetween
the sexes we need
clear
intercourse
to
have a
concept of the line of demarcation
which divides friendship from
embark upon a love
affair
which has no
chance of ending in marriage

anguish
and
trouble
parents saw to
it
that
in
To
love.
is
the
to invite
old
days
young people did not
compromise themselves with anyone with
whom
sible,
marriage was undesirable or imposbut in these days
Sharp, have
'
girls,
got to be their
like
Becky
own mammas,'
and with Strong but unrealised inftinds
them on and no knowledge or

experience to ad as a break, wisdom is
urging
often bought at the price of suffering,
if
nothing worse.
Young people
think of love as an emotion

114
WISDOM
and do not
realise that
they are in
its
is
and the
whose sudden breaking
resented,
away under a
thrown
is
really courtship,
barriers of modefty,
be
a passion until
Skylarking and horse-play
camouflage what
would
it is
115
and reason
throes
the winds.
to
LOVE
IN
get
gradually
worn
progressive familiarity.
To
a mixture of licence and ignorance add a
few cocktails, and the resulting compound

is
a highly inflammable one.
The entrance
of sex feelings into a relation-
ship can always be recognised by two things,
the
desire
to
and the
touch,
is
free
for
As long
as a friend-
from any impulse
to cuddling
exclusive possession.
ship
desire
or jealousy,
it
and wholesome, but

of these appear, whoever
safe
is
as soon as either
does not wish to pursue that friendship to

goal
the
of marriage
position quite clear,
should
and
if
make
their
necessary break
off the friendship before the deeper feelings
are involved.
It is
1
if
a reliable
you take the

5
laft,
and once
maxim
firft
in sex matters that
ep, you will take the
familiarity
is
allowed to pass
n6
the
bounds of propriety and the
modeSty
is
time
the plunge
till
waters
Stirred
To
broken,
of the
and
made
is
principles
is
the
into the dark
thrown
to the wind.
its
home, may, nay, moft certainly

in other places.
and
proper
warms
hearth,
a dangerous conflagration
are
Passions
to play with fire,
domestic
of
only a matter of
that burning safely in
fire
place,
is
underworld.
play with sex
the
it
ice
will,
the
Start
be kindled
if it
Young people jut awaken-
ing to adulthood, and having no experience
of the dangerous brightness of the consuming

flame, have no idea
how quickly
the pleasant
spark of an apparently harmless flirtation
may
It
blaze into an uncontrollable

is
fire.
a sense of the sandity of love which
is
the greatest protection, a feeling that sex
is
not a thing to be played with, but to be
guarded
as
something sacred.
Girls should
realise
that the male view-point
comes
to
classes,
tresses,
love,
divides
potential wives
women
when
into
it
two
and potential mis-
and that they never confuse the two
nor transfer a
girl
from the one
to the other
WISDOM
class
when once
IN
she
LOVE
has
117
been
classified.
An honourable man
woman unless he is
seeking to win her as
his wife, neither does
an honourable
never makes love to a
encourage attentions unless she
man
to consider that
is
prepared
as a possible
husband.
As one of the cow-boy characters

delightful
The
Story,
c
the heroine,
woman
in that
said
Virginian,
of
she's square, she don't take
a man's presents unless she means to take

the man.'
Such
fugitive gifts as sweets,
and
and other small tokens are parts of

pleasant social intercourse and need have
no special significance, but if gifts of in-
flowers
trinsic
value
are
offered,
realised that they are
on
to
be
'
be
payment
and that their acceptance

the mind of the giver that the
account,'
indicates to
*
meant
should
it
delivery of the goods
A man who
is
'
will
wooing a
be forthcoming.
woman
for his
wife desires not only her acceptance of him,
but also her family's acceptance of him
and his family's acceptance of her. A man,

on the other hand, who is merely amusing
himself with a
girl, is
anxious that the affair
n8
should not come to the knowledge of either
By observing whether a man
family.
open
secretive or
will
in his attentions, a
is
woman
be able to form a pretty good opinion
whether
as to
his intentions are
honourable
or the reverse.
I
do not wish
to
it
be thought that
decry the wholesome and helpful comradeship of
boy and
that against
of warning
girl,
which
is
or
man and woman
wish to utter a word
the gradual sliding from such
a friendship into the intimacy which
beginning of sex relations
is
the
possibility
which ignorance and innocence does not

susped.
I
have been astonished at the extent
which, since the war, educated
gone
week-ending,
secure in
who
they would
is
only
ceptives,
believing
girls
have
themselves
a knowledge of contraceptives.
Did they know

as those
to
as
much about
these devices
did the research work on them,

feel
little less
secure.
There
one thing certain about contra-
and that
is
their uncertainty.
contraceptive has to guard against some-
WISDOM
thing that
is
IN
LOVE
119
microscopic, exceedingly active,
and exceedingly tenacious of
quires very careful technique for
use
and while
conception,
it
never
and
life,
its
re-
proper
reduces the likelihood of

eliminates
entirely
it.
reckoned that contraceptives, carefully
It is
used, will give a 90 per cent degree of safety,
but there
is
always the remaining 10 per
cent to be reckoned with, which
is
protected
by nothing but the god of chance, and the

pitcher that goes often enough to the well
trufts
get
The
broken in the end.
gets
'
girl
who
her reputation to contraceptives will
caught out
Some
'
sooner or
later.
ignorant wiseacres think that, as a
second Siring to their

ceptives
abortion.
fail,
they
Now
bow
in case contra-
can have recourse
an abortion
is
to
the deliberate
inducing of a miscarriage, and
is
severely
punishable under the criminal law.
It
is,
of course, the murder of the unborn child,

which is a living being from the time of its
conception although
it
up a separate exigence.
self
has not yet taken
The mother
her-
runs a greater risk in undergoing an
120
abortion than she does in a normal labour,
have
for at full term, all the tissues that
have undergone certain changes
separate
so that they part easily,

is
but when labour
induced these
artificially
and
lently torn apart
remain adhering
where they
tissues are vio-
parts of
them may
to the wall of the
decompose, and
die,
womb,
up
set
a&ion of
blood-poisoning.
If through the
any two people a
living soul has set out
its
journey through
unwanted), there
(even
life
if
that
and do the
faced
error.
way
will
it
The
to
is,
has
beft that
If the
is
only one thing to be
is
and man, and that

responsibility
on
that soul
done, according to the laws of both
child.
to
shoulder
been
God
the
undertaken
can be done
for that
ordeal be well and nobly
go far to redeem the original

lapse of time has a wonderful
of solving problems that appear in-
superable at the moment, and the worSt

Storms blow themselves out with
its
The
problem of
bet
way
to deal with the
the illegitimate child
is
and take up the burden.
to
passage.
admit the error
Every one respe&s
WISDOM
LOVE
IN
121
a courageous attempt to
make amends for

has been done, and more
a wrong that
hands
will
to help
than to throw
under such circumftances.
ftones
are
be held out
many
There
purpose
societies that exift for the
of helping in such
bet person to confide in
some other
good Sanding.
or
the family doftor
is
medical
qualified
He
and the
difficulty,
know
will
the
man
in
way
to
needed and the
obtain the help that
is
organisations to go
to,
for
he
beft
used to
is
having such problems brought to him in

the course of his work, and he
is
bound
to
both secrecy and honourable dealing by

the rules of his profession.
not to
go to
the unqualified practitioner,
is
or the nurse
who
is
rules of her profession
case
The one person
willing to break the
and undertake such
without a do6tor.
No
reputable
person will risk their professional position
and the
life
a thing,
it
of their patient by doing such

is
only the sweepings of the

will
do
safe ones to
be
medical or nursing profession that

it,
and such hands are not
in such a crisis.
122
When
it
is
realised
how wonderful
mechanism by which
world,
it
will also
be
lightly to
life
the
comes into the
be realised that
set in
is
motion.
It
it
muS
is
not
never
be forgotten that even the moSt normal

child-birth causes severe suffering
and any
abnormality involves grave
and the
intervention
dirt or
ing
risk
The
of a surgeon.
contamination causes blood-poison-
bleeding often occurs and
times very difficult to Sop, and

is
may
prolonged, the heart
the Strain.
when he
man
if
is
some-
the labour
give out under
It will therefore
a terrible ordeal a
to
slightest
be seen what
exposes a
woman
asks her to risk facing child-
birth if he cannot provide her with the care
she needs at such a time.

ask
it
has
its
True love does not
the love that makes such

roots in sensuality
and
demands
selfishness.
have never yet seen an irregular union
which has proved
to
psychological factors
be permanent.
come
Curious
into play in such
a union, fadors which do not show themselves in the ordinary
these
lies
way
of
life,
and
in
hidden the beginning of the end.
As soon
as
WISDOM IN LOVE
a woman yields herself to
an unsandified union, she
in
and
his eyes,
sacrifice of a
woman
to
whom
his
contains
rift
love
the
is
and
selfish
man
asks this
he cannot
name, she
offer the protection of his
that
loses cafte in
man
as soon as a
123
feels
character
his
The
elements of weakness.
within the lute has appeared, though
invisible to the eye,
and however the
may
contrary,
protect
to
the
the
lips
inborn
Standards of judgment are at work in the
subconscious mind.
Finally,
there
illegitimate child
come of such
homeless,
the
is
of the
which may be the out-
a union
cat
upon the world,
unprotected,
nameless,
tread a hard path
should flay the hand

siderations
problem
its
feet
the thought of this
when
all
other con-
fail.
What shall be said to the man

who has had to learn that evil
experiencing it?
Is
it
or
woman
is
evil
by
possible for a soul
from the ashes of its

leave
pafl, or are there some things which
an indelible impression upon it? I have
to rise like a phoenix
124
seen a great
many men and women who
have come up from the depths, and

always observed that
COURAGE, any
If
we make
if
is
we
sufficient
have, however, to
be prepared to pay the price, and
we
the issue squarely,
have
can be redeemed.
error
mistakes,
there
if,
facing
shoulder the con-
sequences of our mistakes and pay off the
we can make good,
debt without whining,
own
not only in our
eyes
and
in the sight
of God, but of our fellow-men also.
world
is
people
kinder than
resped
The
used to be, and
it
attempt
courageous
to
redeem the pat, however bad it may have

been, and many hands are held out to
help.
Those who point the finger of scorn
are beneath contempt,
throw at the soul that

feet are generally
the onlookers.
and the
is
Stones they
Struggling to
its
hurled back at them by
The
honeSt admission of an
make
good, command resped, and as soon as we
set out to arise and go to our Father we
error
and the
find that there

sets
Godward.
fixed determination to
is
a great undercurrent that
People
may
say they do
WISDOM
IN
LOVE
125
when
not believe in prayer because
prayed
for a fine
not get
day
they
for a picnic, they did
but there are more kinds of
it,
prayer than that, and the cry for spiritual

help from the soul that admits
its
mistakes
and
its
Strength
fighting to the limit of
is
produces some very surprising
The
confession of sin as a preliminary to
reform
soul,
to
results.
a very deep-rooted inStind of the
is
an
obey
inStindt
;
which
and even
it is
sound psychology
do not make systematic use of

is
which
in those faiths
confession,
it
generally possible to find a wise, kindly,
and spiritually-minded
who
will
remember
that
minister
help in the bearing of the burden.
But in any
case,
let
us
repentance means a turning again, a retracing of the Steps that have gone aStray,
not collapsing in an abjed heap of misery
and
let
true
comes
made
us,
moreover, distinguish between
repentance,
when
the
and
self-pity
the
inevitable
that the wages of sin
cannot believe that God

but the
however pious
;
that
discovery
is
likes
man
death.
is
snivellers,
or
woman
126
however
who,
evil
Stands upright,
flinching feet
they
has
been
their
and then walks with un-
over the burning coals
come back
"
way
pat,
how-
he was yet a great
Father saw him, and ran to
his
off,
And when
till
and narrow
to the Straight
way, has surely redeemed any

ever bad.
life,
When we set out to go to God, we

meet Him a great deal sooner than we
him."
expert.
The
bet attitude towards
experience
a
to
that
lesson,
which Kipling applied
will
It
We
"
war,
disastrous
perial
yet
is
an unfortunate
make
had an imus an empire
"
!
much more in love than desire

beloved, so much more in sex than
There
for the
is
so
physical passion,
that an irregular union
can yield no deep and
lasting satisfaction.
Unless love can be experienced in
and beauty,
Is
it is
its
entirety
better foregone.
the path of such a foregoing a sad
lonely one
the
be
love
sacrifice
It
can be
offered
by the lower
far otherwise.
up
as
self to the
and
Let
voluntary
higher
self,
WISDOM
and
LOVE
IN
127
be found to bring not only peace,

but power. The magicians of old always
it
will
invoked their gods with
by
sacrifice
we invoke
that
powers of the soul
may
aside
and
sacrifice,
is
higher
the
the love that
it
caft
is
bring the bitterness of regret,
but the love that
is
upon
laid
the altar
of noble living brings a light that
is
all
own.
its
It is not,
however, in the hour of
trial,
when emotion is at a white heat, that the

power to make such a sacrifice can be
found
does
it
not
lie
any
in
ecstatic
emotion, but in the settled habit of the
mind, in an integrity which

fibre
of the character.
live that if
as
was
Virgin
his
and
soul
St.
is
part of the
Let each
man
so
he were suddenly called upon
Joseph, to take into his care the
Mother, she might
reft
secure in
prote&ion, undefiled even by thought,

let
each
woman
so live that the nobleSt
might seek incarnation through her
body and come
into the world undefiled.
$4.95
THE PROBLEM OF
PURITY
Drawing on her experience as psychotherapist and occultist,
Dion Fortune approaches the study of our sexual nature from
the standpoint of enhancing
sizing the
This
was
is
its sacredness and de-emphadangers through understanding.
the
work by Dion Fortune and

published under her real name, Violet Firth.
first
originally
reprint of this early
ISBN 0-87728-506-3
Samuel Weiser,
Inc.
Cover by Alden Cole
740 Broadway
New York 10003

The Problem of Purity - Dion Fortune

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THE

York. N.Y. 10003

Our Attitude Towards Sex

The Purpose of the Sex

The Strategy of Sex Control

The Control of the Sex Force

The Power of the Sublimated

The Building of the Higher Self

Life of the Child

The Psychology of Modesty

Abnormal Forms of Sexuality

who have come

really a course of treatments

which deal with Standpoint and motive,

in the reader, juft as I

however, take patients now,

THE PROBLEM OF PURITY

books have been written which

explain the fa6ts of sex in simple

for social purity

which make appeals

and some few, of varying

which deal with the problems of

to deal in a really pra&ical

the difficulties of celibacy,

for control of the sex

be unmarried either from

force of circumstances or choice.

desirable that the urge of the sex inStin&s

should not be so insistent as to cause

THE PROBLEM OF PURITY

who make that choice

very helpful for those

approach which reduces the expenditure of

more economical of energy than the

attack of pure will-power.

relations are but a

substitute for this ideal

but rather towards

thing that any one should be hurried into

seek at his leisure for the

his true wife,

as well as his lower.

the master of himself if he

kingdom should not have

bodies, our bodies belong to us, to be used

ends that reason, not emotion, shall

a tragic thing for a

be carried along by a tide of desire while

higher self rebels at the demands

needs which cannot be

save by means which he feels to be degrading.

men, though not

often ignorant of the significance of her

to the Sternness of the

code towards the delinquencies of her

dare not dally with them

her danger does not

and nervous disorders of

middle age, and

becomes acute towards

THE PROBLEM OF PURITY

given to men, with disastrous consequences.