SEX AND THE INDIVIDUAL 189 



confidently, that of the women who have borne 

 children there are very many who would not delib- 

 erately have encouraged the process of impregna- 

 tion, and would, indeed, have evaded it but for the 

 fact that this process is accomplished through the 

 mediation of that varying mixture of sensual excita- 

 tion and emotional fervor which is known as the 

 sexual appetite. Without this, there would be 

 relatively little inducement to suffer the physical 

 discomfort, the mental perturbation, and the actual 

 bodily risks that intervene between conception and 

 the birth of a child. The sexual instinct, at times 

 so peremptory and so powerfully engrossing, is thus 

 nature's device for entrapping the unwary to per- 

 petuate their lives. But this crude statement tells 

 only a part of the truth, for among cultured races 

 sentiment and affection are so closely entwined with 

 the sensual aspect of the sexual instinct that the latter 

 finds innumerable expressions which give few or no 

 obtrusive hints of their origin and association. 



II 



It is not surprising that an instinct so imperious 

 should often be misused. Emerson said, "The 

 preservation of the species was a point of such neces- 

 sity that Nature has secured it at all hazards by 

 immensely overloading the passions, at the risk of 

 perpetual crime and disorder." The indulgence of 

 sexual passion involves a temporary loss of habitual 



