CHAPTER II
Social Results of Neglecting these Physiological Laws
The wide bearing and importance of the truths derived from physiology will become more and more apparent, as we examine another branch of the subject, and ascertain from an observation of facts around us, how far the present relations of men and women in civilized countries, are based upon sound principles of physiology. It is necessary to know how far these principles are understood and carried out from infancy onward, whether efforts for the improvement of the race are moulded by physiological methods of human growth, and what are the inevitable consequences which result from departure from these principles.
According to a rational and physiological view of life, the family should be cherished as the precious centre of national welfare; every custom, therefore, which tends to support the dignity of the family and which prepares our youth for this life, is of vital importance to a nation. Thus the slow development of the sexual faculties by hygienic regime, by the absence of all unnatural stimulus to these propensities, by the constant association of boys and girls together, under adult influence, in habitual and unconscious companionship, the cultivation in the child’s mind of a true idea of manliness and the perception that self-command is the distinctive peculiarity of the human being, are the ordinary and natural conditions which rational physiology requires. On the contrary, every custom which insults the family and unfits for its establishment, which degrades the natural nobility of human sex, which sneers at it and treats this great principle with flippancy, which tends to kill its Divine essence, all such influences and such customs are a great crime against society, and directly opposed to the teaching of rational physiology.
An extended view of social facts, not only in different classes of our own society, but also in those countries with which we are nearly related, is of the utmost value to the parent. Physiological knowledge would be valueless to the mass of mankind, if its direct bearing upon the character and happiness of a nation could not be shown. So in considering the sexual education of youth according to the light of sound physiology, the social influences which affect the natural growth of the human being are an important part of applied physiology.
The tendencies of civilization must be studied in our chief cities. The rapid growth of large towns during the last half-century and the comparatively stationary condition of the country population show where the full and complete results of those principles which are most active in our civilization must be sought for. London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, New York, are not exceptions, but examples. They show the mature results towards which smaller towns are tending. Those who live in quiet country districts often flatter themselves that the rampant vice of large towns has nothing to do with villages, small communities, and the country at large. This is a delusion. The condition of large towns has a direct relation to the country.
In these focal points of civilization we observe, as examples of sexual relationship, two great institutions existing side by side—two institutions in direct antagonism—viz., Marriage and Prostitution, the latter steadily gaining ground over the former.
In examining these two institutions, the larger signification of licentiousness must be given to prostitution, applicable to men and women. Marriage is the recognised union of two, sharing responsibilities, providing for and educating a family. Prostitution is the indiscriminate union of many, with no object but physical gratification, with no responsibilities, and no care for offspring. It is essential to study the effects, both upon men and women and upon mankind at large, of this great fact of licentiousness, if we are to appreciate the true laws of sexual union in their full force, and the aims, importance, and wide bearing of Moral Education. We shall only here refer to its effects upon the young.
We may justly speak of licentiousness as an institution. It is considered by a large portion of society as an essential part of itself. It possesses its code of written and unwritten laws, its sources of supply, its various resorts, from the poorest hovel to the gaudiest mansion, its endless grade, from the coarsest and most ignorant to the refined and cultivated. It has its special amusements and places of public resort. It has its police, its hospitals, its prisons, and it has its literature. The organized manner in which portions of the press are engaged in promoting licentiousness, reaching, not thousands, but millions of readers, is a fact of weighty importance. The one item of vicious advertisements falls into distinct categories of corruption. Growing, therefore, as it does, constantly and rapidly, licentiousness becomes a fact of primary importance in society. Its character and origin must be studied by all who take an interest in the growth of the human race, and who believe in the maintenance of marriage, and the family, as the foundation of human progress.
Everyone who has studied life in many civilized countries, and the literature reflecting that life, will observe the antagonism of these two institutions: the recognition of the greater influence of the mistress than the wife, the constant triumph of passion over duty and deep, steady affection. We see the neglect of the home for the café, the theatre, the public amusement; the consequent degradation of the home into a place indispensable as a nursery for children, and for the transaction of common, every-day matters, a place of resort for the accidents of life, for growing old in, for continuing the family name, but too tedious a place to be in much, to spend the evening and really live in. Enjoyments are sought for elsewhere. The charm of society, the keener interests of life, no longer centre in the household. It is a domestic place, more or less quiet, but no home in the true sense of the word. The true home can only be formed by father and mother, by their joint influence on one another, on their children, and on their friends. The narrow, one-sided, diminishing influence of Continental homes amongst great masses of the population, from absence of due paternal care, is a painful fact to witness. That there are beautiful examples of domestic life to be found in every civilized country—homes where father and mother are one in the indispensable unity of family life—no one will deny who has closely observed foreign society. Indeed, any nation is in the stage of rapid dissolution where the institution of the family is completely and universally degraded; but the preceding statement is a faithful representation of the general tone and tendencies of social life in many parts of the Continent. That the same fatal principles, leading to the like results, are at work both in England and America will be seen as we proceed. Licentiousness may be considered as still in its infancy with us, when compared with its universal prevalence in many parts of the Continent; but it is growing in our own country with a rapidity which threatens fatal injury to our most cherished institution, the pure Christian home, with its far-reaching influences, an institution which has been the foundation of our national greatness.
The results of licentiousness should be especially considered in their effects upon the youth of both sexes, of both the richer and poorer classes; also in their bearing upon the institution of marriage and upon the race. In all these aspects it enters into direct relation with the family, and no one who values the family, with the education which it should secure, can any longer afford to ignore what so intimately affects its best interests. It is to the first branch of the subject that reference will here be chiefly made.