SEX BIOLOGY AND SEX PSYCHOLOGY 165 



of a particular aspect of our particular problem. Or 

 again, when St. Paul says "Am I not free?" or "All 

 things are lawful unto me/' he means that by sub- 

 ordinating all sides of himself to his highest ideals, 

 he has reached that state in which what he does is 

 right to him because he only wants to do what is 

 right. (True that, as he himself confesses, he is not 

 always able to keep in that state: but when he is in 

 it, he attains that complete freedom which is the sub- 

 ordination of lower to higher desire.) 



Physiologically speaking, the activation of the sex 

 instinct, when the connection is made in this way, 

 arouses the higher centres, and these react upon the 

 centres connected with the sex instinct, modifying 

 their mode of action. The nett result is thus that 

 both act simultaneously to produce a single whole of 

 a new type. Processes of this nature are common 

 in the nervous system, as has been shown for instance 

 by Hughlings Jackson, Head, and Rivers. ^^ 



Thus the higher, dominant parts of the mind are 

 strengthened by their connection with such lower 

 parts as the simple sex instinct, and the sex instinct 

 is able to play a role in any operation of the mind, 

 however exalted, in which emotion is in any way 

 concerned. Rivers believes that the actual conflict 

 between controlled and controlling parts of the mind 

 is a potent generator of mental 'energy"; and adds, 

 "whatever be the source of the energy, however, we 

 can be confident that by the process of sublimation 



13 See Rivers, '20, chs. iv, xviii. 



