papers which young women read.
The result is that it has come to be almost a standard authority in
these affairs.

Dr. C.'s argument is, baldly, as follows:--(a) Among animals, the
universal practice is a single act of coitus for each begetting of
off-spring, (b) Human beings are animals, (c) Therefore, human beings
should only engage in coitus for reproductive purposes.

To this syllogism he adds a corollary, which is, that, therefore, all
sexual commerce in the human family, for any other than reproductive
purposes, is _wrong._ These are his texts, so to speak, and through
several hundred pages he preaches, _don't, don't, don't,_ sermons. The
entire volume is one of denial and prohibition. He proclaims the act,
even for the one purpose he allows to be right, as low, and in itself
degrading, to be engaged in only after "prayer and fasting" and
"mortifying the flesh," and even then, in the most passionless, and
only done-because-it-has-to-be manner; as a mere matter of duty; to be
permitted by sufferance; joyless, disgusting in itself; a something
to be avoided, even in thought, other than it is a necessity for the
continuance of the race.

_It is from such data as this that thousands of "innocent" brides
annually make up their minds as to what is right or wrong in the
matter of sexual intercourse._

In doing this, most of these young women are perfectly conscientious,
and want to do the right thing, and there are two items in the count
that naturally lead them to accept Dr. C.'s teachings as correct. The
first is, that it coincides with all they have ever heard about such
matters; the second, that the Doctor flavors all his text with a
religious quality, of the alleged most sacred sort. He instances
saintly women who have lived the most ascetic lives, and whose
religious status was achieved because, and by means of, their perfect
chastity. In fact, this word "chastity" (which he translates as entire
renunciation of the whole sex nature) becomes the test word of his
whole treatise, and its practice is upheld as the true road to all
goodness and virtue.

Now, nearly all well-bred and cultivated young women are naturally
religious (and not a word should be said against their being so) and
they are anxious to time their lives to everything that the highest
religious demands prescribe. It is, therefore, most natural that,
being thus taught by an authority for which they have the highest
regard, they enter marriage w