THE NATURAL 



at least among animals, impatience. Animals are by 

 no means mere machines, they, as well as men, are 

 capable of imaginations, they dream, they have illusions, 

 they are subject to desires whose source is in the interior 

 movement of their organism. The sight or odour of a 

 female over-excites the male; but far from any female, 

 the logic of the vital movement suffices perfectly to put 

 them in a state of rut; it is absolutely the same with 

 females. If the state of rut, and if the sensibilization of 

 the genital parts is established far from necessary sex, 

 we have here a natural cause of aberration, for it is this 

 special sensibility which must be used: the first simu- 

 lacrum, or even the first propitious obstacle will be the 

 adversary against which the exasperated animal exercises 

 the energy by which he is tormented. 



One may apply the general principles of this psychology 

 to man, but on condition that we do not forget that 

 man's genital sensibility is apt to be awakened at any 

 moment, and that for him the causes of aberration are 

 multiplied ad infinitum. There would be extremely few 

 aberrated men and women if moral customs permitted a 

 quite simple satisfaction of sexual needs, if it were pos- 

 sible for the two sexes to meet always at the opportune 

 moment. There would remain aberrations of anatomical 

 order; they would be less frequent and less tyrannic, if 

 our customs, instead of contriving ways to make sexual 

 relations very difficult, should favour them. But this 

 easiness is only possible, in promiscuity, which is possibly 

 a worse ill than aberration. Thus all questions are in- 

 soluble, and one can only improve nature by disorganiz- 

 ing her. Human order is often a disorder worse than 

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