mean by love either the individualised
instinct, or the rare, purely spiritual love. But it is not likely that
the third stage will become a universal condition; in all probability it
will, for a long time to come, be limited to special individuals, and
even then only to specific phases of their lives. The feeling of the
great majority of men has not changed; it is primitively sexual; in the
state of mind which is called _to be in love_ it is centred on an
individual woman, to be, after a time, gradually stifled by other
interests. The emotional life of the majority of women, on the other
hand, is still what it was in remotest antiquity. Love impels woman into
the arms of a man to whom she remains faithful, until slowly her
instincts are transformed into love for her children. But in the case
even of the average woman, body and soul are equally affected; there is
no more terrible moment in a woman's life than the one in which she
discovers that the man to whom she has given herself has merely used her
as a means for gratification. Harmoniously organised woman has given
herself to a merely sexual man who sought in her only the satisfaction
of his senses. This also is the cause of the horror with which the
normal woman regards the prostitute, for the latter has made of herself
a means for the gratification of male sexuality, losing thereby her
inherent harmony and individuality. And it is also the reason why, in
spite of ethical convictions and logical conclusions, we should have
different standards for the loyalty of the husband and the loyalty of
the wife; in man sexuality is a distinct element, an element, it is
true, which we do not value, but which nevertheless exists and has, as
we have seen, a historical root. When a man gives way to his instincts,
his individuality is not only not destroyed, but it is hardly affected.
It is very different in the case of the woman; with her, emancipated
sexuality is synonymous with inward annihilation, for it has not the
support of the past and cannot exist independently. A man's spiritual
annihilation from the emotional sphere is unthinkable because his
organisation is naturally heterogeneous. The mere sexualist represents a
past stage of male eroticism which has been largely overcome, but he is
rarely so completely under the spell of sexuality that he cannot highly
develop other parts of his entity. The _double morality_ has, therefore,
an objective reason (though perhaps not a hi