THE MYSTERY OF SEX/PART 6

 

CHAPTER VI

SEX IN HUMAN LIFE

There are two aspects of Sex in Human-Life. The first, the physical aspect, is merely a continuation of the thought phase of sex in the life of the animal kingdom, and should concern itself solely with the reproduction of the species. The second, the vital, mental, moral and spiritual, leads to planes of manifestation of which the animal world has no experience, although some of its phases are indicated in the lives of the higher animals in the sense of a prophetical promise.

Strange as it may appear to many, some of the moral and ethical features of sex in human-life are seen to have their roots in the sex manifestation of the higher animal-life. There is much in common between them. As Geddes says: "It is with emotions that we have here most to do; and without raising the difficult question whether animals exhibit any emotions exactly analogous to those which in man are associated with the 'moral sense,' 'religion,' and 'the sublime,' we accept the conclusion of Darwin, followed by Romanes and others, that all other emotions which we ourselves experience, are likewise recognizable in analogous expression in the higher animals. Those which are associated with sex and reproduction are in deed among the most patent; love of mates, love of offspring, lust, jealousy, family affection, social sympathies, are undeniable."

The love of mates, which in the earliest beginning of the lower life forms is evidenced only by an instinctive attraction, is then seen to gradually evolve into something which may be called "affection," and 'from thence into a steadily ascending scale of "love," until in the highest human development it is evidenced by a mental and emotional condition far above anything witnessed among the lower forms of life. Even far down in the scale of life we may see evidences of the mutual attraction between mates. Even among the insects there may be seen that which is truly called "courtship” as distinguished from elementary sexual acts. Geddes says: "There may even be cooperation in work as in the beetles, such as the Ateuchus, where the two sexes pursue their somewhat disinterested labors together. The male and female of another beetle inhabit the same cavity, and the virtuous matron is said greatly to resent the intrusion of another male."

Jealousy plays a prominent part in the life of the higher animals, and even the lower forms manifest it in some cases; as, for instance, among the fishes the stickle-back battles with his rivals, and finally leads his mate to the nest he has built of twigs and weeds, and after going through 'the motions of a wild love-dance, pushes her in the nest and thereafter guards her jealously from other males. The battles between rival males of the salmon family are terrific. Coquetry and jealousy have been noticed even among the insects. Snakes manifest great jealousy and love of the company of their mates. If a cobra is killed, its mate often travels to the scene of its death and remains there, disconsolate, for many days. Among birds, there are found all the manifestations of courtship, jealousy, and love of mates. The dove affords a striking illustration. Some birds mate for life, and often mourn away their lives if the mate is killed.

Geddes says: "Mantegazza has written a work entitled 'The Physiology of Love,' in which he expounds the optimistic doctrine that love is the universal dynamic; and from this Buchner quotes the sentence, that 'the whole of nature is one hymn of love.' If the last word be used very widely, this often-repeated utterance has more than poetic significance. But even in the most literal sense there is much truth in it, since so many animals are at one in the common habit of serenading their mates. The chirping of insects, the croaking of frogs, the calls of mammals, the song of birds, illustrate both the bathos and glory of the love-chorus. The works of Darwin and others have made us familiar with the numerous ways, both gentle and violent, in which mammals woo one another. The display of decorations in which many male birds indulge, the amatory dances of others, the love-lights of glow-in-sects, the joyous tournaments or furious duels of rival suitors, the choice which not a few females seem to exhibit, and the like, show how a process, at first crude enough, becomes enhanced by appeals to more than merely sexual appetite. But it is hardly necessary now to argue seriously in support of the thesis that love -in the sense of sexual sympathy, psychical as well as physical- exists among animals in many degrees of evolution. Our comparative psychology has been too much influenced by our intellectual superiority; but while this, no doubt, has its correspondingly increased possibilities of emotional range, it does not necessarily imply a corresponding emotional intensity; and we have no means of measuring, much less limiting, that glow of organic emotion which so manifestly flushes the organism with color and floods the world with song. Who knows whether the song-bird be not beside the man what the child-musician is to the ordinary dullness of our daily toil and thought? The fact to be insisted upon is this, that the vague sexual attraction of the lowest organisms has been evolved into a definite reproductive impulse, into a desire often predominating over even that of self-preservation; that this again, enhanced by more and more subtle psychical additions, passes by a gentle gradient into the love of the highest animals, and of the average human individual."

The love of offspring, which many seem to consider a distinctively human characteristic, has its roots in the mental and emotional life of the lower forms of life. Even as far down the scale as the worms, we find evidences of the offspring clinging around the mother animal, and often protected by the latter in one way or another. Some of the lowly forms of life carry their young around with them in brood-chambers, or pouch-like contrivances. The Clepsine, a small freshwater leech, always carries its young around with it, attached to the surface of its body. The marine leech known as the "skate-sucker" guards faithfully for several weeks its eggs which it has deposited in an old shell, or under a stone. Some of the spiders carry their eggs around with them in tiny sacks, until they are hatched. Among the shell-fish there are many species in which the young return to the shell of their mother after being hatched. The mother cray-fish gives shelter to her young until they are able to care for themselves. The attention and care given to young bees and ants is well known. Some plant-lice mothers are as solicitous for the welfare of their young as is the mother hen. Among the mammals the young are carefully watched and guarded, in a manner strikingly human-like in many cases. Among the higher mammals it is quite easy and natural to apply the term "parental love" to the interest manifested by the mother and father toward their offspring.

Many authorities hold that altruistic emotions and feelings -the sympathies, and love for others- had their rise in the love of the lower animals for their mates and their young. This becoming more highly developed in the human being, reached out to include the love for more distant relatives; then the love for friends; then the community love for the tribe; then the love for the nation; and finally the love for all mankind, and the human brotherhood; which, in the future, will extend to the love for all living things. Under this theory, all the altruistic and unselfish emotions, sympathies and "fellow feelings," arose from the sexual instinct and love of the lower animal for his mate and young. Geddes says of this:

"The optimism which finds in animal life only 'one hymn of love' is inaccurate, like the pessimism which sees throughout nothing but selfishness. Littré, Leconte, and some others less definitely, have more reasonably recognized the co-existence of twin streams of egoism and altruism, which often merge 'for a space without losing their distinctness’, and are traceable to a common origin in the simplest forms of life. In the hunger and reproductive attractions of the lowest organisms, the self-regarding and other-regarding activities of the higher find their starting-point. Though some vague consciousness is perhaps co-existent with life itself, we can only speak with confidence of psychical egoism and altruism after a central nervous system has been definitely established. At the same time, the activities of even the lowest organisms are often distinctly referable to either category. A simple organism, which merely feeds and grows, and liberates superfluous portions of its substance to start new existences, is plainly living an egoistic and individualistic life. But whenever we find the occurrence of close association with another form, we find the first rude hints of love. It may still be almost wholly an organic hunger which prompts the union, but it is the beginning of life not wholly individualistic. Hardly distinguishable at the outset, the primitive hunger and love become the starting-points of divergent lines of egoistic and altruistic emotion and activity. The differentiation of separate sexes; the production of offspring which remain associated with the parents; the occurrence of genuine pairing beyond the limits of the sexual period; the establishment of distinct families, with unmistakable affection between parents, offspring, and relatives; and lastly, the occurrence of animal societies wider than the family, -mark important steps in the evolution of both egoism and altruism. There are two divergent lines of emotional and practical activity, -hunger, self-regarding, egoism, on the one hand; love, other-regarding, altruism, on the other. These find a basal unity in the primitively close association between hunger and love, between nutritive and reproductive needs. Each plane of ascent marks a widening and ennobling of the activities; but each has its corresponding bathos, when either side unduly preponderates over the other. The actual path of progress is represented by action and reaction between the two complementary functions, the mingling becoming more and more intricate. Sexual attraction ceases to be wholly selfish; hunger may be overcome by love; love of mates is enhanced by love for off-spring; love for offspring broadens out into love of kindred. Finally, the ideal before us is a more harmonious blending of the two.

It is not our intention to speak of the physiology of sex in human-life in this book. There are many good books written on the subject, which indeed requires a large book to consider in detail. Nor shall we discuss the physical side of the love of man and women in this book, except in the matter of pointing out certain grave errors into which the race has fallen -the prostitution of the creative function to the gratification of sensual lust. We shall speak of this in plain words in the succeeding chapters.

From thence, we shall pass on to a brief consideration of the higher phases of Sex in human-life. Sex exists for the human being not only on the plane of the physical, but also on the vital, mental and spiritual plane. Moreover there is possible to a human being the conservation and transmutation of the creative energy of the sexual organism. Of this, too, shall we speak. The purpose of this book is to show the evolution of sex from the inorganic life, on to the lower forms of organic life, thence onward to the human life, and then on to the plane of the superman and superwoman.

Sex is like the sacred lotus of Oriental lands -its roots buried in the muddy slime of the river-bed, thence rising through the various currents of the river-water, until finally the air is reached, when lo! the plant blossoms forth in luxuriant purity, a type and symbol of the highest spiritual development. Sex has its roots in the mud of material life; it rises through the flowing waters of mentality; and finally blossoms in the clear air of the spiritual nature -pure, sacred, divine. We ask all to read carefully and ponder deeply on what we shall now have to say regarding Sex in Human-Life.