156 SEX 



inevitable complicity in sustaining a horrible 

 social system. There is the baseness at best 

 base thoughtlessness of seduction ; there is 

 the birth-stain of illegitimate children, and 

 the misery so often brought on their mother. 

 There is the personal and social rotting that 

 so often follows the dissimulation and mean- 

 ness of adultery. And so on. 



In regard to the risks of repression it cannot 

 be truthfully said that there is unanimity 

 among experts. According to Freud, for 

 instance, there is for many a great danger lest 

 the dammed-up passion seeks out a weak spot 

 and breaks through into neurotic substitute 

 gratifications. He admits that conquering 

 through sublimation and the transference of 

 the force of the sexual instinct from sexual 

 ends to higher cultural aims may succeed in 

 some, while in others it leads to neuroses or 

 some other injury. Fere, on the other hand, 

 looks forward without alarm to an increasing 

 control of sexual appetite, to an " adjourn- 

 ment " of sexual gratification till after mar- 

 riage. No general rule can be laid down, but 

 it is safe to say that most men would be none 

 the worse, but all the better, of greater self- 

 restraint; and this not only in deed, and in 

 word, but also in thought. Just as the 

 ancients were mistaken in regarding chlorosis 

 as a mal d' amour, so the doctrine of the 

 evil effects of chastity requires very careful 

 criticism. It is certain that continence 

 neither injures the reproductive organs nor 

 the sentiment of love, and Fere* goes the 

 length of saying that " there is no pathology 

 of continence." As the historic religions 



