The faults now so often charged upon young women, their love of dress, luxury, and pleasure, their neglect of economy and dislike of steady home duties, may be traced directly to the injurious influence which habits of licentiousness are exercising directly and indirectly upon marriage, the home, and society. The subject of dress is one of serious importance, for it is a source of extravagance in all classes, and one of the strongest temptations to vice among poor girls. The creation of this morbid excess in dress by licentiousness is evident. If physical attraction is the sole or chief force which draws young men to young women, then everything which either enhances physical charms, which brings them more prominently forward, or which supplies the lack of physical beauty, must necessarily be resorted to by women, whose nature it is to draw men to them. The stronger the general domination of physical sensation—over character, sympathy, companionship, mutual help, and social growth—becomes amongst men, the more exclusive, intense, and competitive must grow this morbid devotion to dress on the part of women. Did young men seriously long for a virtuous wife and happy home, and fit themselves to secure those blessings, young women would naturally cultivate the domestic qualities which insure a bright, attractive home. The young man, however, is now discouraged from early marriage; the question soon presents itself to him: ‘Why should I marry and burden myself with a wife and family? I am very well off as I am; I can spend my money as I like on personal pleasures; I can get all that I want from women without losing my liberty or assuming responsibilities!’ The respectable girl is thus forced into a most degrading and utterly unavailing competition with the prostitute or the mistress. Marriage is indefinitely postponed by the young man; at first it may be from necessity, later from choice. The young woman, unable to obtain the husband suited to her in age, must either lead a single life or accept the unnatural union with a rich elderly man.
The grave physiological error of promoting marriage between the young and the old cannot be dwelt on here. It is productive of very grave evils, both to the health and happiness of the individual and to the growth of the Race. The steady decrease of marriage, and at the same time the late date at which it is contracted as licentiousness increases, is shown by a comparison of the statistics of Belgium and France with those of England. We find also that the character of the population deteriorates with the spread of vice—the standard of recruiting for the army is lowered, an ever-increasing mass of fatherless children die or become criminals, and, finally, the natural growth of the population of the country constantly decreases.
The records of History confirm the teaching of Physiology and Observation in relation to the fundamental character of sexual virtue, as the secret of durable national greatness. The decline of all the great nations of antiquity is marked by the prevalence of gross social corruption. The complex effects of the same cause are strikingly observed in the condition of the Mohammedan and other Eastern races and in all the tribes subject to them. We find amongst these races, as the result of their sexual customs, a want of human charity. This is shown in the absence of benevolent institutions and other modes of expressing sympathy. A great gulf separates the rich and poor, bridged over by no offices of kindness, no sense of the sacred oneness of humanity, which is deeper than all separations of caste or condition. There is no respect shown for human life, which is lightly and remorselessly sacrificed, and punishment degenerates into torture. There is also an incapacity for understanding the fundamental value of truth and honesty, and a consequent impossibility of creating a good government. We observe that bravery degenerates into fierceness and cruelty, and that the apathy of the masses keeps them victims of oppression. It is the exhibition of a race where there is no development of the Moral Element in human nature. These general characteristics and their cause were well described by the celebrated surgeon Lallemand, who says: ‘The contrast between the polygamous and sensual East and the monogamous and intellectual West displays on a large scale the different results produced by the different exercise of the sexual powers. On one side, Polygamy, harems, seraglios—the source of venereal excesses—barbarous mutilations, revolting and unnatural vice, with the population scanty, inactive, indolent, sunk in ignorance, and consequently the victim of misery and of every kind of despotism. On the other side, Monogamy, Christian austerity, more equal distribution of domestic happiness, increase of intelligence, liberty, and general well-being; rapid increase of an active, laborious, and enterprising population, necessarily spreading and dominating.’
The great moral element of society, which contains the power of self-renewal and continual growth, must necessarily be wanting in all nations where one-half of the people—the centre of the family, out of which society must grow—remains in a stunted or perverted condition. Women, as well as men, create society. Their share is a silent one. It has not the glitter of gold and purple, the noise of drums and marching armies, the smoke and clank of furnaces and machinery. All the splendid din of external life is wanting in the quiet realm of distinctive woman’s work; therefore it is often overlooked, misunderstood, or despised. Nevertheless, it is of vital importance. It preserves the only germ of society which is capable of permanent growth—the germ of unselfish human love and innate righteousness—in distinction to which all dazzling material splendour and intellectual ability, divorced from the love of Right, is but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. It is for this reason that no polygamous or licentious customs, which destroy the woman’s nature and dry up the deepest source of human sympathy, can possibly produce a durable or a noble and happy nation. The value of a nation, its position in the scale of humanity, its durability, must always be judged by the condition of its masses, and the test of that condition is the strength and purity of home virtues—the character of the women of the nation.
No reference to the lessons of History, however brief, should omit the effect produced by religious teaching. The influence exercised by the Christian religion in relation to sex is of the most striking character. Christian teaching is distinguished from other religious teaching by its justice to women, its tender reverence for childhood, and by the laying down of that great corner-stone, Inward Holiness, as the indispensable foundation of true life. This is all summed up in its establishment of unitary marriage, through the emphatic adoption of the original Law, ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.’ The development of this Law by Jesus Christ into its high significance of spiritual purity, whilst it has been a principle of growth in the past, is the great hope of the future. The study of this Christian type, in its radical effect upon national life, is full of interest and instruction, but is also a study of great difficulty. This teaching of our Lord has never been adopted as the universal rule of practical life by any nation. The results of this law of union can only be judged on a large scale by comparing the condition of so-called Christian countries—where a certain amount of this high teaching has been diffused through the community—with the condition of nations where no such teaching has existed. The great battle between Christianity and Paganism still continues in our midst. The actual practical type prevailing in all civilized nations is not Christian. In these nations the Christian idea of unitary sexual relations is accepted theoretically, as conducive to the best interests of the family and binding upon the higher classes of women; but it is entirely set aside as a practical life for the majority of the community. Christ’s Law is considered either as a vague command, applicable only to some indefinite future, or as a theory which it would be positively unwise to put into practice in daily life. The statement is distinctly made, and widely believed, that the nature of men and women differs so radically that the same moral law is not applicable to the two sexes.
The great lesson derived from History, however, is always this—viz., that moral development must keep pace with the intellectual, or the race degenerates. This moral element is especially embodied by woman, and purity in woman cannot exist without purity in man, this weighty fact being shown by the facts already stated—viz., the action of licentiousness upon the great mass of unprotected women, its reaction upon other classes, and the accumulating influence of hereditary sensuality.
In the indisputable principles brought forward in the preceding pages, and the mass of facts and daily observation which support them, is found the answer to the first question proposed as a guide to the moral education of youth—viz.: What is the true standard for the relations of men and women, the type which contains within itself the germ of progress and indefinite development?
We see that the early and faithful union of one man with one woman is the true Ideal of Society. It secures the health and purity of the family relation, and is the foundation of social and national welfare. It is supported by sound principles of Physiology, by the history of the rise and fall of nations, and by a consideration of the evils of our present age. The lessons of the past and present, our clearer knowledge of cause and effect, alike prove the wisdom of the highest religious teaching—viz., that the faithful union of strong and pure young manhood and womanhood is the only element out of which a strong and durable nation can grow.
CHAPTER III
The Hygienic Advantage of Sexual Morality
The present subject may be summed up in two great questions—viz., First, is Virtue desirable? Secondly, is Virtue practicable?