A CHAPTER FOE MARRIED PEOPLE 519 



marriage is copulation, and that his wife ought to be 

 equally amorous with himself. 



''It is a mistake to suppose that the kindness, the 

 kiss, and the loving embrace of the wife are, in general, 

 the expression of sexual desire. The following was 

 the exclamation, to me, of a most refined and cultivated 

 lady, the mother of five children, and who dearly loved 

 her husband: 'How often we wives would caress our 

 husbands if we did not know the inevitable conse- 

 quences!' I know that I am right as to the womanly 

 nature, and I know that if men generally thus believed, 

 there would be less licentiousness, i^urer and happier 

 wedded life, and healthier women ; for how many women 

 are rendered miserable, both morally and physically, 

 by the sexual excesses and brutalities of husbands!" 



In confirmation of these statements we quote the 

 following from an author whose name frequently ap- 

 pears in this work, the eminent Dr. Acton : 



"I have taken pains to obtain and compare abun- 

 dant evidence on this subject, and the result of my 

 inquiries I may briefly epitomize as follows : I should 

 say that the majority of women, happily for them, are 

 not very much troubled with sexual feeling of any kind. 

 A¥liat men are habitually, women are only exception- 

 ally. I admit, of course, the existence of sexual excite- 

 ment, terminating even in nymphomania, a form of 

 insanity that those accustomed to visit lunatic asylums 

 must be fully conversant with; but, with these sad ex- 

 ceptions, there can be no doubt that sexual feeling in 

 the female is, in the majority of cases, in abeyance, 

 and that it requires positive and considerable excite- 

 ment to be roused at all; and even if roused, which in 

 many instances it never can be, is very moderate com- 

 pared with that of the male. 



