SEX AND THE INDIVIDUAL 193 



and it is only reasonable to think that this improve- 

 ment will come mainly as a special phase of that more 

 general amelioration of the relation between the 

 sexes which is an outcome of the growing wish of 

 people to make better and better use of their facul- 

 ties. 



Ill 



The attitude of the male and the female toward the 

 sexual impulse is, in general, dissimilar in one impor- 

 tant respect. The male seeks sexual gratification 

 without giving much thought as to progeny, certainly 

 with no strong desire, as a rule, to have children. In 

 women there is often a distinct wish to have children, 

 which paves the way for the multitudinous personal 

 sacrifices which maternity imposes. But there are 

 also women who care little to have children, or to 

 whom the idea of maternity is repellent. If such 

 women are sensual and uncontrolled by elevating 

 influences of education or religious precept, they 

 constitute material from which the prostitute class 

 may be recruited. What is called respectable society 

 holds thousands of women who have the sensual, 

 pleasure-loving temperament of the prostitute, but 

 who never become professionals because they are 

 protected by fortune from the necessity of making 

 a living. They marry and have children, but this 

 does not radically alter their natures, and they show, 

 during their entire lives, so strong a tendency to 

 self-gratification in one way or another that they 



