VIRILE SENTIMENT 115 



time of marriage, for the positions which their youth- 

 ful years are likely to occupy, are married to partners 

 who improve in all qualities as time advances, it is 

 clear that the barrier of incompatibility must widen 

 with the passage of each year. I do not suppose 

 that these cases are very numerous, but still they 

 exist. 



And it seems to me a very important matter, 

 because I think that these changes of which I speak 

 are inherent or inborn in their nature, and can no 

 more be avoided than the appearance of the antlers 

 and of the fighting instincts of the stag when it has 

 reached its maturity ; and cannot be commanded to 

 stay their appearance any more than can those 

 sexual instincts and secondary sexual characters 

 which inevitably appear in human beings at a certain 

 stage in their developement. This appearance of new 

 characters and new qualities at different stages in the 

 lives of individuals, and of one kind for one person and 

 of another kind for another, is of far wider social 

 import than its application to married life. Its very 

 existence vitiates a great deal of the medical evidence 

 that was given before the Committee on Physical 

 Deterioration and Degeneration. This latter question 

 is not so much a medical one as it is a biological one, 

 and the medical evidence, though valuable, is not 

 the most important that can be adduced, and, in fact, 

 in many of its conclusions it is erroneous and in its 

 nature entirely misleading. 



Note to pp. 102, 104, and 106. — While this address 

 has been passing through the press, four events of some 



