organized beings ; tliis feems to have been a very leading ob- 

 jett, and one accordingly, in wliich (lie lias developed all the 

 fertility of her refources. Scarcely can fuch Jiverfified phe- 



GENERATION. 



other hand, the fecretion of the fluid, by the emifiion of 

 which man contributes to the reprodutlive procefs, the 

 myfterious work of conception, the developemcnt of the nevr 

 being, &c. all belong to the organic life. 



Sexuiil D!/Iin{fioni. — Some ancient philofophcrs have held 

 on this fubject opinions very injurious to the fair fex, and in- 

 deed fo manifelHy wliimlical and ridiculous, lliat a Ilmple 

 ilatement of them will (liew their abfurdity. Woman, in 

 the opinion of Ariilotle, is an imperfccl man, an ill-formed 

 and imbecile individual ; while man is charafterized by the 

 attributes of llrength and power. Galen goes even further, 

 and confounding the fexes in thofe very parts, where theirdii- 

 tinguifhing charafters arc the molt unequivocally marked, ad- 



- ility 

 nomena be reduced, by artificial clafiilications, to any com. 

 ition and conftant laws : new fatts fpeedily modify or overturn 

 the previous generalizations ; and imagination can fcarcely con- 

 ceive any polllble forms of propagation which obfervalion 

 does not foon realize. The generative functions (hould be 

 particularly attended to by thofe who arc employed in de- 

 lineating the manners of animals. They will probably find 

 that the propenfities and habits of each are intimately con- 

 nected with the mode of propagation ; and that the charac- 

 ter of its wants, pleafures, and labours, its fociability and per- „ -, ,-a: . 1. - 1 J - 1 

 feclibility and theextcntorimportanceof itsrclationscitherto mits no other differences between the male and female gene- 

 other fpeci'es or to the various external bodies or agents, parti- rative organs than fuch as may be deduced from developemcnt 

 cularlv depend on the circumllances or conditions to which its and fituation. He does not regard even the addition of the 

 rcproduftion is fubjeaed, and on the difpofition of the or- uterus in the female as an objeftion to this opinion, but, 

 eans employed for this purpofe. This is certainly very bending nature to his h)rpot!i-iis, he reprefcnts this organ as 

 much the cafe with man, which is the objed of our prefent being turned infide outward) m man toenvclope the glands in 

 ,1- ^- , which the feminal fluid is elaborated. This ItranKe paradox 

 inveltigation. ,. , , i i , • i ■ i n 



Man belongs to one of thofe claffes of the more compL- has been adopted by numerous writers, and is hardly yet 



cated and perfeft animals, where propagation is efFefted by completely abandoned. Daubenton calls the clitoris a penis 



th- concurrence of two beings, whofe organization, potTeff- in miniature ; Buffon turns the ovaries into telliclcs, and en- 



in? moll circumllances in common, is dillinguilhed by certain deavours to prove that the addition of the uterus alone con- 



particular traits. He quits the womb of his mother with iUtutes any efiential diftinclion between the male and female 



organs capable of refilling the imprefTions of the atmofphere, parts. 



and of afiimilatinfr food to his own fubilance : he can already Some refemblance in the unimportant points of form and 

 live bv his own independent powers. He is not deftincd to arrangement gave rife to thele unfounded analogies : pride 

 remain, like the oviparous animal, included in a foreign en- and fexual prejudices, joined to the refults of fuperficial ob- 

 velop, 'and to continue for an indeterminate length of time fervation, fecm to have fo far raided true philofophers, 

 iiiaftateof inaclion whichhardly differs froranon-exiftence : whofe itrange opinions we have juil alluded to, as to make 

 he does not v/ait until creative warmth beftows on him mo- thetn difcover, in one of the firit productions of nature, a 

 tionand life, amid the nutritive fluids prepared beforehand feeble (ketch, and a timid produftion. V/oman has appear- 

 by nature, like thofe in which the embryo of the ferpent, ed to them as a degradation and imperfeft copy of the con- 

 the tortoife, or the bird fwims for a long time as an invifible ftitution of man, while, in faft, (he is the mod effential 

 point. The human foetus hos been fupported in the uterus part of the fpecies, as contributing by far the greatefl (hare 

 by fluids animalized in the vefTels of the mother : it fubfifts, to the buiinefs of reproduClion. A more accurate examina- 

 jmmediately after birth, on milk, prepared in organs fet tion will dedroy thefe fuppofed analogies, and prove that 

 anart for that office. The duration of gcdatlon, that of Bvan and woman do not differ in the relations of more or lefs, 

 infancy, during which the aid of the parents is indilpeiifible, but that the (Iruclure and funftions of their generative or- 



cnd the epoch of puberty, or the moment at which the ge 

 ncralive faculty is raanifeded by fenfible figiis, didcr greatly 

 ir, the different fpecies of animals ; thefe circumdances are 

 not connefted together by uniform or condant relations. 

 Man, like all the more perfecl animals, is not born with 

 the power of reproducing the fpecies. The organs, which 

 arc at a future period to excrcife this fundlion, are now com- 

 pletely inaclive,and the appetites which folicit their aftion do not 

 txid. The time of puberty ; — the epo.ha at which the frame 

 and powers of thebeing receive their full developemcnt, is alfo 



gans are different in their kind ; that their whole coultitution 

 has in each its peculiar type, the didinctive traits of which 

 offer to our view along chain of phylical and moral effefts 

 more or lefs immediately dependent on the funftions of the 

 organs concerned in the bufinefs of generation. 



The characters of fex do not therefore (hew tliemfelves in 

 any finglc point ; it is not merely a particular organic ap- 

 paratus, nor th«ife external forms which delight us, that 

 conditute woman : and if (lie is principally charadlerized in 

 fome parts, where the fexual phyfiognomy is the moil de 



the period at which the generative organs, recovered from cidedly expreffed, if the fuperficial traits, and the fweetly 



their lethargv, affume an adlive date, and become capable rounded contours, which conditute her chai-ms, form her moll 



of exerclfinc their functions. The duration of infancy is agreeable didintlion, (he is woman in the eyes of the natu- 



longcr, and tlic age of puberty is later in man than in any raliil and phyficlan, in all her modes of exidencc, in her 



animals ; although the term of gedation is ihorter than in moral affeilions as well as in her phyfical fydeni, in her en- 



fome other fpecies. Thefe circumdances mud have a very joyments and pains ; in a word, all parts of her exidence 



marked influence on the wants, the faculties, and the habits of bear the character of fex, and prefent a feries of contrads 



the human race. and oppofitions v.ith the corrrfpor.ding points in man. 



The charaflers of the generative funftions partake of thofe It is however only at the epoeha of puberty, at that period 



which belong to the animal and organic lives. Thus, on of life called by EufTon " le printenips de la nature, la fai- 



one fide, all that precedes the union of the fexes, all the fon des plaifirs," that the aflisniblage of all the fexual traits is 



impreffions made on one by the charms which nature has be- exhibited to our nbfervation ; and that man and woman, at- 



dowed on the other, belong to the fends ; this very union trafted to each other the more forcibly in proportion as they 



is an aft of the external life, to which animals are impelled didcr, become connected by various relations, which enlargje 



by inftinft, over which reafon prefides to a certain degree in an exidence hitherto perfonal, fclitary and ifolated. Woman 



man. The influence of habit is alfo perceived here ; but may be diflinguilhed from man by general and particular dif- 



inftead of blunting the enjoyment, it renders it rather more ferences : the latter are fo decided as to be eafily difcerni- 



acute, and often gives rife to faftitious wants. On the ble at all times, while the former, wliich are our prefent ob- 

 ject 



