a man, and not a woman. A
similar thought finds utterance in the morning prayer of the Jews. They
pray: "Blessed be Thou, our God and Lord of Hosts, _who hast not created
me a woman_;" the Jewish women, on the other hand, pray at the
corresponding place: "_who hast created me after thy will_." The
contrast in the position of the sexes can find no more forcible
expression than it does in the saying of Plato, and in the different
wording of the prayer among the Jews. The male is the real being, the
master of the female. With the views of Plato and the Jews, the larger
part of men agree, and many a woman also wishes that she had been born a
man and not a woman. In this view lies reflected the condition of the
female sex.

Wholly irrespective of the question whether woman is oppressed as a
female proletarian, as sex she is oppressed in the modern world of
private property. A number of checks and obstructions, unknown to man,
exist for her, and hem her in at every step. Much that is allowed to man
is forbidden to her; a number of social rights and privileges, enjoyed
by the former, are, if exercised by her, a blot or a crime. She suffers
both as a social and a sex entity, and it is hard to say in which of the
two respects she suffers more.

Of all the natural impulses human beings are instinct with, along with
that of eating and drinking, the sexual impulse is the strongest. The
impulse to procreate the species is the most powerful expression of the
"Will to Live." It is implanted most strongly in every normally
developed human being. Upon maturity, its satisfaction is an actual
necessity for man's physical and mental health. Luther was perfectly
right when he said: "He who would resist the promptings of Nature, and
prevent their going as Nature wills and must, _what else does he but
endeavor to resist Nature's being Nature, that fire burn, water wet,
that man eat, drink or sleep_?" These are words that should be graven in
granite over the doors of our churches, in which the "sinful flesh" is
so diligently preached against. More strikingly no physician or
physiologist can describe the necessity for the satisfaction of the
craving for love on the part of a healthy being,--a craving that finds
its expression in sexual intercourse.

It is a commandment of the human being to itself--a commandment that it
must obey if it wishes to develop normally and in health--that it
neglect the exercise of no member of its body, deny grat