INTRODUCTION.
THE SEXUAL INSTINCT AND THE IMPORTANCE OF A JUST APPRECIATION OF ITS INFLUENCE.
THE strongest of all instincts, pertaining in common to all living beings, mankind included, is admittedly that of SelfPreservation. The second strongest instinct is the Sexual, or the instinct of propagation. These are fundamental and permanent, whether consciously recognized or not.
Upon due reflection, and interpreted broadly, it will be appreciated that the sexual instinct has been deeply stamped upon the individuality of every normal person. .Ajid we may safely go so far as to say that the two chief, if not sole, influences which govern all human endeavor and action are these innate propensities of selfconservation and the desire for the reproduction of the species.The instinct of selfpreservation leads us to do those things which will bd of material advantage to us in assuring health and prosperity; and in fulfilment of this law we are impelled to a steady application to business or other pursuits by which we may accumulate property, and are led to conform to moral restraints and laws for our welfare in this world, and for a deliverance from the penalties of sin, of which we stand in more or less fear, in the life to come.
In the process of the building up of our civilization we cannot fail to observe that the confidence in an immortal life beyond the grave has exerted a tremendous influence 2 upon our conduct in this life, so that we not infrequently go contrary to our desires out of an extrarational motive of altruism, largely through a feeling of love to our neighbors, and partly on account of the hope of ultimate advantage to ourselves.
In this respect, the instinct of selfpreservation in mankind admits of a wider interpretation than it does in the lower animals; for with us our hopes extend to at least gome feeling of reliance in a future state; and it need hardly be pointed out that in the physiology of mankind there is a fixed correlation of the moral and physical natures. With us, therefore, the principle of selfpreservation is to no small degree modified by altruism, by which influence we have the power of progress; and not seldom the rudiments of a selfsacrificing morality are also to be found among the inferior animals.
The sexual instinct irresistibly attracts to each other individuals whose generative organs differ in physical characteristics, anatomically and physiologically, and it insures the development of families and the perpetuation of the race. It makes one proud of his manhood or of her womanhood, and is in fact the indispensable quality which marks the perfect man or perfect woman. "Sexual love is the passion which unites the sexes. The stimulating impressions produced by health, youth, and beauty, and ornaments and other artificial means of attraction, are all elements of this feeling. ... Around the sexual appetite as the leading element there are aggregated many different feelings, such as admiration, pleasure of possession, love of freedom, selfesteem, and love of approbation. A complete analysis of love would fill a volume."
It is this instinct which is the source of most that is pure and noble in us; and if we were bereft of it there would be an arrest of development of all our virile qualities. From it arise our love for home, our rivalry in sports, our desire to associate with the opposite sex, our delight in music, poetry, romance, ornamentation, sculpture, painting, and all the attributes of art. Without it, emulation would sleep and virtue flee, and we should be as those who are emasculated or as those whose potency is in any way impaired-cowardly, unfit for battle, without the distinctive qualities of sexual beauty, flabby in muscle, inferior in mental power, lacking in moral sense, and disinclined to courtship.
With its disappearance would come the extinction of the family line, while with its vitiation are transmitted to one's offspring evil tendencies which appear in multitudinous forms in the provinces of immorality, criminality, insanity, perversity, and various other defects traceable to hereditary influence.
Every normal individual has unmistakable evidences of sexual longings and desire, and from this domain come those impulses which are foremost in our careers.
Consequently it is every man's duty to rightly understand this part of his nature, and to have a f ull comprehension of the consequences which surely follow upon the vitiation or perverse use of his generative functions.
The sexual power, if properly subjugated, is capable of uplifting man to the highest levels; but if given license it may bear him down to the lowest depths of infamy and distress, and bring down in the catastrophe others whose lives and fortunes are bound up with his.
It is, then, a mischievously stupid thing to be ignorant in regard to sexual hygiene and conduct, and no rational man should be content to go through life blindfolded to those functions which are the strongest elements of his nature. He who does not properly understand this potent factor of sexuality is extremely limited in his power for good, but well equipped for exerting a pernicious influence-for every individual who is possessed of the strongly characteristic attributes of manhood must belong either to the side which is in favor of purity, or to the faction which practises and advocates sensuality.