520 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



"Many men, and particularly young men, form 

 tlieir ideas of women's feelings from what they notice 

 early in life among loose, or at least low and vulgar 

 women. There is always a certain number of females 

 who, though not ostensibly prostitutes, make a kind of 

 trade of a pretty face. They are fond of admiration; 

 they like to attract the attention of those immediately 

 around them. Any susce]3tible boy is easily led to 

 believe, whether he is not altogether overcome by the 

 siren or not, that she, and hence all women, must have 

 at least as strong passions as himself. Such women, 

 however, give a very false idea of the condition of 

 sexual feeling in general. Association with the loose 

 women of London streets, in casinos and other immoral 

 haunts, who, if they have not sexual feeling, counter- 

 feit it so well that the novice does not suspect but that 

 it is genuine, all seem to corroborate such an impres- 

 sion. 



"Married men, medical men, or married women 

 themselves, would, if appealed to, tell a ditferent tale, 

 and vindicate female nature from the vile aspersions 

 cast on it by the abandoned conduct and ungoverned 

 lust of a few of its worst examples. There are many 

 females who never feel any excitement whatever. 

 Others, again, immediately after each period, do be- 

 come, to a limited degree, capable of experiencing it; 

 but this capacity is only temporary, and will cease 

 entirely until the next menstrual period. The best 

 mothers, wives, and managers of households know little 

 or nothing of sexual indulgences. Love of home, of 

 children, of domestic duties, are the only passions they 

 feel. As a general rule, a modest woman seldom de- 

 sires any sexual gratification for herself. She submits 

 to her husband, but only to please him; and but for 



