"Sex is a paradox; it is that which separates in order to unite.... There is no instance in Nature of Division of Labour being brought to such extreme specialisation. The two sexes were not only set apart to perform different halves of the same function, but each so entirely lost the power of performing the whole function that even with so great a thing at stake as the continuance of the species one could not discharge it.
"It is important to notice this absence of necessity for Sex having been created—the absence of any known necessity, from the merely physiological standpoint.
"Is it inconceivable that Nature should sometimes do things with an ulterior object, an ethical one, for instance? To no one with any acquaintance with Nature's ways, will it be possible to conceive of such a purpose as the sole purpose.
"Had Sex done nothing more than make an interesting world, the debt of Evolution to Reproduction had been incalculable.... What exactly Maleness is, and what Femaleness, has been one of the problems of the world. At least five hundred theories of their origin are already in the field, but the solution seems to have baffled every approach. Sex has remained almost to the present hour an ultimate mystery of creation....
"The contribution of each to the evolution of the human race is special and unique. To the man has been mainly assigned the fulfilment of the first great function—the Struggle for Life. Woman, whose higher contribution has not yet been named, is the chosen instrument for carrying on the Struggle for the Life of Others.
"That task, translated into one great word is Maternity—which is nothing but the Struggle for the Life of Others transfigured, transferred to the moral sphere. Focused in a single human being, this function, as we rise in history, slowly begins to be accompanied by those heaven-born psychical states which transform the femaleness of the older order into the Motherhood of the New."
Out of the misconception of Sex as having no other purpose or significance than that of reproduction merely, there has arisen the further misconception that, lacking other purpose or significance, the sex-characteristics of Woman may be obliterated in her not only without injury, but with benefit to her; as being superfluous and hampering impedimenta merely, when reproductive issues are beside the question.
Yet since Faculty lapses first in its latest and highest developments, sex-deterioration manifests most in the higher mental and moral Sex-characteristics. One result, therefore, of not fostering, by culture and by avocation, sex-specialisations upon planes of mind and aptitude, is that, while lapsing in its higher functions, Sex remains operative still upon the physical plane, and functions crudely—perhaps viciously thereon. Just as intelligence becomes dense and degraded when its finer qualities are not exercised, and their development thus raised to finer issues. Moreover, by denying to Sex and to the rites of love any but parental issues, the individual, emotional and spiritual issues of the human union are ignored; a limitation all the more dishonouring, because of the present-day misconception of parenthood as being a purely "physical," and, accordingly, an inferior function.
There is not, of course, in all the complex marvel of human metabolism, such an anomaly as a purely physical function. Digestion even is far, indeed, from being such, since by way of this a slice of bread is transformed into living personality, living thought and impulse, living action.
Sex is manifestly a Spiritual and an Eternal Principle. Because, by way of its essential dual differentiations and intensifying operations, Matter becomes endued not only with Life and Faculty, but, having become Living Matter, it becomes endued, by power of reproduction, with the potential of eternal Life and Faculty. Even more, it becomes endued with the potential of the eternal unfoldment of ever-further intensifying Life and Faculty.
Sex is, in truth, for both genders, such a convergence of every characteristic—physical, mental and emotional—in a highly specialised focus, that the whole outlook upon life becomes highly specialised and intensified thereby; every impression and experience becoming instinct and charged with intrinsic meanings, vividness and colour. And this apart wholly from relation to the other sex. Although, of course, the focus and intensity of the traits of the one sex are accentuated in vividness and richness, in response to the complementary traits of the other.
It is Sex that energises men to be great; great leaders of men, great writers, great statesmen, great soldiers, great sailors, explorers—great sinners and great saints.
Sex it is makes women great also; great mates for great men, great mothers, writers, ministers to poor Humanity—great saints.
The mystery of Sex is, surely, Master-key to all the other mysteries of the Cosmos.
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