me, need not fear to tell what she has done to the man who
desires her in marriage, speaking as one human being to another.
She has no need to blush, she has exercised her human rights, and
no reasonable man will on that account esteem her the less" (Dr.
H. Paul, "Die Ueberschaetzung der Jungfernschaft," _Geschlecht und
Gesellschaft_, Bd. ii, p. 14, 1907).

In a similar spirit writes F. Erhard (_Geschlecht und
Gesellschaft_, Bd. i, p. 408): "Virginity in one sense has its
worth, but in the ordinary sense it is greatly overestimated.
Apart from the fact that a girl who possesses it may yet be
thoroughly perverted, this over-estimation of virginity leads to
the girl who is without it being despised, and has further
resulted in the development of a special industry for the
preparation, by means of a prudishly cloistral education, of
girls who will bring to their husbands the peculiar dainty of a
bride who knows nothing about anything. Naturally, this can only
be achieved at the expense of any rational education. What the
undeveloped little goose may turn into, no man can foresee."

Freud (_Sexual-Probleme_, March, 1908) also points out the evil
results of the education for marriage which is given to girls on
the basis of this ideal of virginity. "Education undertakes the
task of repressing the girl's sensuality until the time of
betrothal. It not only forbids sexual relations and sets a high
premium on innocence, but it also withdraws the ripening womanly
individuality from temptation, maintaining a state of ignorance
concerning the practical side of the part she is intended to play
in life, and enduring no stirring of love which cannot lead to
marriage. The result is that when she is suddenly permitted to
fall in love by the authority of her elders, the girl cannot
bring her psychic disposition to bear, and goes into marriage
uncertain of her own feelings. As a consequence of this
artificial retardation of the function of love she brings nothing
but deception to the husband who has set all his desires upon
her, and manifests frigidity in her physical relations with him."

Senancour (_De l'Amour_, vol. i, p. 285) even believes that, when
it is possible to leave out of consideration the question of
offspring, not only will the law of chastity become equal for the
two sexes, b