Thus even Pflüger admits that continence is compatible with perfect health and only thinks that the force of sensuality would sweep aside all recommendations of abstinence. Now, about the possibility of total abstinence, there may be a great difference of opinion. But granted absolute abstinence is only an ideal, no ideal can be realized, otherwise it would not be an ideal. We can only approach an ideal, and this would be a great gain in regard to sexual continence. Näcke says that absolute sexual abstinence is an utopia just as the total abolition of prostitution, public and clandestine, or the absolute abstinence from alcohol. Man’s impulses are too powerful, but they may be restrained and kept in proper bounds.
[EN] Statistics show that it is not at all the question about the men being continent, but about the boy controlling early passions. Most men contract venereal diseases between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. The mature man is always able to control his passions. The more healthy, says Chassaignac, and the nearer the normal an individual is, the better he can not only control his passions, but the less is his condition likely to be disturbed by continence. It is the neurasthenic who is most prone to be upset by an attempted or enforced continence and who, as well, is most given to excess.
[EO] The Talmudists, the keenest observers of human life and conduct, knew this when they said אבר קטן יש באדם משביעו רעב ומרעיבו שבע (Sanhedrin, p. 107A). “There is a small organ in the body of a man which is always hungry if one is trying to satisfy it, and is always satisfied if one starves it.”
[EP] The family, i. e., near their father and mother, is the only institution where children were meant to be brought up. No collective work, settlements, vacation homes or asylums can protect or guide friendless children properly. The spiritual and emotional education of the child, the awakening of its higher sentiments can only be carried out in the atmosphere of the parental home, under the guidance of love and affection of those who have given life to this child.
[EQ] Since men’s deviation from the strict path of chastity jeopardizes the very existence of the race, sexual morality must be binding upon all men, under all conditions without any regard to the original reason for the establishment of the moral law. A law, in its nature, can not acknowledge any exceptions. There may be a case where infection could be excluded with absolute certainty, just as there may be a case where the father’s doubt would have no consequences for the child. Embezzlement is also sometimes allowed and even a duty, as Cicero shows in “De Officiis,” “Si gladium quis apud te sana mente deposuerit, repetat insaniens, reddere peccatum sit officium non reddere.” In a remote future, under communism, as Mardach paints it, all the reasons for male or female sexual morality may become non-existent. Then the standard will surely change. But in our present state of society one standard of morality must be established for men and women, from which no one should have a right to deviate, no matter even if the reasons for the standard are not applicable in the particular case.
[ER] The imperious instinct which decrees the perpetuation of the race, says Lewis, can be controlled and directed aright by the consistent knowledge of truth. When the young man has been taught the dignity of virility, when he has learned that purity is conducive to bodily development, while vice carries with it the most serious diseases in its train and the danger not only of ruining his own life but also the health of his future bride and the entire progeny, he will not stoop to vice for the gratification of his desires. The average man is not a criminal, he does not wreck the life and health of his wife and children knowingly and wilfully. In most cases he does it through ignorance of the nature and terrible consequences of the disease.
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation have been standardised.
Variations in the use of accents and ligatures have been resolved only when in conflict with the index.
All other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.