THE CYCLE OF SEX 139 



sexual temperance in married life. The 

 phrase " monogamic prostitution " is ugly 

 enough, but it expresses an ugly fact. Bernard 

 Shaw touches man's animal nature on the 

 raw when he says that " marriage is popular 

 because it combines the maximum of tempta- 

 tion with the maximum of opportunity." 

 It is likely, we venture to think, that woman's 

 increasing sense of self-respect (inhibited by 

 the survival of patriarchal ideas) and man's 

 increasing respect for her, will help both 

 towards a higher degree of temperance in 

 married life, There is risk of smothering love 

 in physical fondness ; for the uxorious hus- 

 band, the too effusive wife, seems to evoke 

 the very opposite quality in their respective 

 life-partners. The attenuation of the physical 

 and the accentuation of the psychical must 

 be regarded as characteristic of the finest 

 marriages ; and there is happily never a dearth 

 of high examples on the part of wives, espe- 

 cially of love which never grows old. 



THE DIFFICULT AGE AND SENESCENCE. 

 In many animals sexual activity is definitely 

 periodic. It is in evidence at the breeding 

 season and then ceases for the year, the 

 gonads often passing into a state of rest. In 

 many birds they become very inconspicuous 

 outside the breeding season. 



In the punctuation of the sexual life, there 

 eventually comes a full stop, especially in 

 the females, which is far from coinciding 

 with the general life of the organism. The 

 production of germ-cells comes to an end, 

 and though desire may not fail, there is an 

 end to fertility. It is possible that the 



