THE END OF THE CIRCLE 141 



gratifications. With us it means marriage, faithfulness to 

 one another, the building of a home through sympathy, 

 mutual unselfishness, and helplfulness. In the lower 

 species the males often instinctively protect their females 

 and young in an emergency. So do we, but in addition we 

 feel that men should always protect and help and cherish 

 children and women. We feel that a man who is not thus 

 chivalrous is not quite a gentleman. In animals, the parents 

 instinctively guard and feed their offspring, but with us 

 the real mother and father do not only do this but help 

 the children get their education, try to provide for their 

 future, nurse and care for them when they are sick, sym- 

 pathize with them in their difficulties, give their very lives 

 for them in many ways. Courtship among the higher 

 animals is an instinctive and passionate series of ap- 

 proaches culminating in mating. With us the earlier 

 years of young manhood and womanhood are full of fine 

 friendships and companionships in which our minds and 

 spirits are developed in some of the finest ways we know, 

 and the period of courtship itself is full of high ideals and 

 devotions that make it one of the most charming times of 

 our lives in and of itself. 



So what I want you to feel is this — that because men 

 and women control and guide and spiritualize these feel- 

 ings and states that belong to reproduction and sex, we 

 have built up around them a whole realm of human inter- 

 est and a portion of our personality that inspires all good 

 people more than the facts themselves. This is shown in 

 our finest poetry and other forms of literature dealing 

 with the love that exists between men and women. 



4. Sex and Society. Much of the structure of our 

 modern society depends on our need of food and other 

 comforts. Thus our farming and the transportation and 

 distribution of crops is built up around the need of food; 

 our stores, manufactures, banks, and the industrial system 

 generally relate to food, the need of clothing, and the 



