In order to give an idea of the contents of such a guide to the sensual life, I need merely enumerate the chapter headings of a book published in 1905, and, as the Paris bookseller from whom I obtained it informed me, immediately confiscated, but none the less still openly sold in the bookshops of the Boulevards and the Rue de Rivoli. It bears the title, “Pour s’Amuser. Guide du Viveur à Paris, par Victor Leca” (Paris, 1905). In his versified dedication, the compiler writes:
“Nous connaissons la Capitale,
Et nous l’aimons avec ferveur;
Ma science expérimentale
A fait ce ‘Guide du Viveur.’”
[“We know the Capital,
And we love it with fervour;
My experimental science
Has made this Guide for the Man about Town.”]
And he states in the preface that all the various pleasures of Paris, for the eye, the ear, and the sense of taste, lead ultimately to—woman, in complete agreement with the definition which I gave above of the sensual life of our time. All these pleasures concur in leading to sexual indulgence—that is the end, the climax of every “amusement,” the true punctum saliens of the life of pleasure of our large towns. Thus Leca, in his comprehensive and elaborate guide for men of pleasure, lays the principal stress on announcements regarding eroticism and on opportunities for erotic adventures in the individual places of pleasure. He enumerates these in series: the theatre, especially the “théâtres très légers,” the “cafés-concerts,” the dancing-saloons, the hippodromes, and circuses, the cabarets of Montmartre, the Quartier Latin, the women’s cafés, the boulevards, the halls of the central market, the brothels (with an exact indication of the streets, and with the numbers of the houses!!), the houses of accommodation (maisons de rendezvous), the likenesses of a few “ladies of pleasure,” the arcades, the parks and public gardens, the popular festivals, the races, drives, public bathing establishments, cemeteries, museums, and exhibitions—all, always, in relation to the feminine element.
These handbooks of the art of enjoyment are existing proofs, from the point of view of the history of civilization, of the fact that the sexual impulse is, in every possible way, influenced, increased, elaborated, and complicated, by the civilization of the present day. Especially the life of great towns, where the essence of modern civilization is found in its most concentrated form, is a sexual stimulant in the highest degree, with its haste and hunting, its “nocturnal life,”[236] with its multiplicity of enjoyments for all the senses, with its gastronomic and alcoholic excesses—in short, with its new device that after work comes pleasure, and not repose.
In my “Sexual Life in England” (vol. ii., p. 261 et seq.) I have described the momentous influence of the mode of life upon sexuality, and have proved how both in the old England and in the new the excessive consumption of meat and of alcoholic beverages has unnaturally stimulated the sexual impulse, and has conducted it into devious paths.
But of Germany also we may say that, apart from the times of “meat famine,” we eat too much meat and drink too much alcohol, the former especially among the higher classes, the latter among all classes of society.
The sexually stimulating influence of luxurious feeding, which, for example, Gabriele d’Annunzio describes in the early part of his romance “Lust,” and which Tolstoi, in the “Kreutzer Sonata,” describes as the principal cause of incitation to lasciviousness, is indeed a well-known fact of experience; and the later in the day these heavy meals are consumed, the more dangerous are they in respect of their influence on the sexual impulse. I am fully convinced that the good old German custom of taking the principal meal of the day at noon is greatly preferable to the so-called “English dinner,” when the principal meal is deferred to four or six o’clock. Luxurious suppers, or even midnight dinners, such as at the present day are quite customary, must be definitely regarded as aphrodisiac.
A far more momentous rôle is played by alcohol in the modern sensual life. A writer who is not himself a strict teetotaller may yet feel it his duty to lay all possible stress on this fact. Indeed, from the standpoint of medical experience and observation, I am prepared to term alcohol the evil genius of the modern sexual life, because in a malicious and underhand manner it delivers its victim to sexual misleading and corruption, to venereal infection, and to all the consequences of casual sexual intercourse.[237]
This is not the place for a detailed discussion of the drink question, or for stating the reasons for my own opinion, that complete abstinence is a Utopian idea, and that the moderate and careful use of alcohol, in quantities suited to the particular individuality, and at suitable times, does no harm worth mentioning. Though this be so, I cannot fail to recognize the deeply tragic rôle which the customary abuse of alcohol plays in the sexual corruption of our time. As to the connexion between alcohol and the sexual life, I must therefore speak at greater length.[238]