THE NATURAL 



CHAPTER XVIII 



THE QUESTION OF ABERRATIONS 



Two sorts of sexual aberration. Sexual aberrations of 

 animals. Those of men. Crossing of species. Chas- 

 tity. Modesty. Varieties and localizations of sexual 

 bash fulness. Artificial creation of modesty. Sort of 

 modesty natural to all females. Cruelty. Picture of 

 carnage. The cricket eaten alive. Habits of carabes. 

 Every living creature is a prey. Necessity to kitt 

 or to be killed. 



SEXUAL aberrations are of two sorts. The cause of the 

 error is internal, or external. The flower of the arum 

 muscivorum (fly-catching arum) by its cadaverous odour 

 attracts flies in search of rotting flesh in which to lay 

 their eggs. Schopenhauer has supported by this, or 

 analogous, fact a theory just, but somewhat summary, of 

 aberration from external cause. Aberration from internal 

 cause is sometimes explained by the statement that the 

 same arteries irrigate and the same nerves animate the 

 region of the sacrum, anterior and posterior; the excretal 

 canals being always near each other, and sometimes 

 common, at least for part of their length. One has spoken 

 seriously of the drake's sodomy, but anatomy refuses to 

 understand it. Whether a drake frequents another 

 drake or a duck, he addresses himself in both cases 

 to the single door of a vestibule into which all excre- 

 172 



