Such compromises are but striking instances of anomalies which meet us on some special occasions, but they do not at all weaken the general belief that lying and the taking of life are of a wholly bad nature. Yet after years of searching there can be found no palliating compromise which permits an honorable dip into illegitimate sexual congress.
Falsehood, the taking of life, and sexual sin, are all especially important factors in ethics; and without fanaticism, or distortion of the perspective, we have said that there is never any excuse to be found for the last, while there may be justification for the others on rare occasions.
In ethics evolved by man we are able to find deviations from the common rule now and then; but when we come into touch with relentless, unpitying Nature, Who has no sense of humor, we seek in vain to divert Her one jot from Her rigid course, and we waste breath in asking for physical mercy. Therefore, fortified by the stability of natural laws which prevail throughout Time and Space, we no more tremble at assaults on the proper deportment of the sex life then we do at hostile intentions against the law of gravitation.
The manifold risks and penalties which have been explained throughout the preceding pages1 all bear heavily upon those who take a contrary position. One gets the same sensation from attempting to raise an ingot of iron weighing a ton as a mountain weighing millions of tons, and a man of good judgment will attempt neither. Similarly it is hopeless to make any effort to lift the blame from errors of sexual conduct, for every fragment of physical sin is ponderous. But we must show by examples why this is so.
Imagine a fertile field, well prepared for the reception of seeds, and under perfect conditions of moisture, temperature, and light. If one sow wheat grains there, what chance is there that they will not germinate ? None. Now imagine a healthy woman with a warm, moist mucous membrane, as favorably constituted for propagation as the ploughed field. Unless a child is desired there is very great danger in planting such a garden with seeds which have locomotory powers and special proclivities for hunting and fructifying ova. Here is something for the critics of natural law to answer, but when they make the attempt, observe well that they at once fall into a defense of the perversions, which often lead to abominations, lying, and murder. Again, suppose a man, whether big or little counts not, should call you a "son of a bad woman". You would, without the least doubt, resent it most emphatically. How then can one reconcile himself to being the father of the "son of a bad woman" ?
That seems a mystery for which we have never been able to account. How under heaven a rational man can find justification in allowing his seed to enter into a woman who is unfit to be the mother of his child is a problem for which the author's intellect is wholly incompetent! The left handed marital act, which is as simple as carelessly throwing a handful of seed by the wayside , onc performed, a long train of results is started whose remote tendencies and consequences it is extremely difficult to cal culate, except that they will be special disturbing forces Perturbations are propagated round each factor of the sexual act as waves which, in greater or less degree, impress their effects as counter waves with unforeseen secondary and tertiary effects which are not health waves.
It is not an isolated instance of pleasure, but has a great and particular moral significance, determining the whole course of life for one's self and others, and leaving the deepest imprints whose consequences it is absolutely impossible to counteract. Observe how Nature brings forth new generations of plants and animals wherever there is a temperature somewhere between the boiling and freezing points of water, and where the protoplasmic constituents of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen are present. Life is everywhere eager to cause inorganic matter to throb under such conditions. Many, indeed, think it probable that there is life wherever in the universe such requisites prevail. If you care to take part in the easy process of originating life, then go through the proper procedures.
«Faeilis descensus Aeerno
Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, hie labor est.»