oll a huge boulder up a hill, only to
see it roll down again, would have to thank his lucky stars for his
lighter punishment. The future, tomorrow, the Kingdom of Heaven on
Earth, or if you will, the Republic of Supermen, means to all of us
what the child means to the madonna. The cynical epicurean careerists
and careeristinas, and the depraved degenerates of a comfort-lusting
civilization may have suffered an absolute atrophy and castration of
that instinct. But they are pathologic specimens, and we are not for
the moment concerned with them.

The Freudians have set up a great hullaballoo about creative
activities as sublimations of the sex instinct, or as they would have
it, the libido. That is their obsession, the confusion of the sex
instinct, the instinct for sex life and satisfaction in the relation
of the male to the female, with the maternal instinct. The paternal
instinct bears the same relation to the maternal, as the breasts of
the male do to those of the female, i.e., a functional hermaphrodite
trait. The maternal instinct is the instinct to create, provide and
care for offspring.

The mother expresses the deep craving of protoplasm for immortality.
What drives her is the instinct of Life to preserve itself unto
eternity in infinite space and time. That separates it sharply from
the temporary needs of the sex instinct. The artist, the man of
science or letters, the statesman, craftsman and maker of every
sort is instigated by the maternal instinct. He creates for his own
pleasure, to be sure. But it is in its essence the pleasure of the
bird making its nest.

It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish between the sex instinct
and the maternal instinct. For different glands of internal secretion
have been found responsible for them. A distinct difference in the
quality and amount of the two instincts may be observed in the same
person. A strong maternal instinct may be seen again and again to
dominate a woman with but little or no sex urge or passion. Numerous
physiologically frigid women have lived successful and happy married
lives because of contented maternity. Other women, with normal or
exaggerated sex instinct who welcome and stimulate the sex life, may
have no wish for children, no functioning maternal instinct at all,
and if sterile, will accept their fate with indifference or even
exultation. These variations occur because of a difference in chemical
source and determination of the two instincts