general idea which has prevailed, that
any indulgence of sex-love was a confession of weakness. In fact, our
modern ideas regarding this subject are so chaotic and so manifestly
paradoxical that they are absurd.

On the one hand we have a tradition that motherhood is a beautiful and
holy thing; on the other, we regard the sex-relation, per se, as an
indecent thing, or at best as a weakness of the flesh.

We have the obvious demonstration that creation is possible only
because of the conjunction of the two sexes, and yet we are taught
that sex-love is something which is permitted to us in this lower
state of our being, and denied in heaven, and at the same time we are
told that God creates everything, and God dwells in Heaven, where
there is no such "polluting sin" as sex-love.

We certainly do need balance.

The word chastity conveys to the mind (and this is not confined to the
undeveloped person, but is general) the idea of a woman who is devoid
of the sex-impulse. Chastity, like the word virtue, suggests to our
minds no relationship to the character, or inner nature of a person;
it has come to be applied to the physical anatomy, and we are not
surprised when we realize that the word is seldom used in connection
with the male. It is strictly a female attribute--nay, we may almost
say, "organ."

If a woman, for any reason whatsoever, whether through lack of
opportunity; through hereditary causes; or through repression,
or--which occurs more frequently--as a commercial expediency,
believing that her person will thus bring more in the matrimonial
market--if, as we say, for any reason, however sordid, a woman escapes
bodily sex-contact, she is called "chaste" and her "virtue" is
extolled.

This is, of course, not a far cry from the ancient days when a
bridegroom had the right to turn the bride away from his door, should
the evidence of her virginity be lacking; whereupon the poor creature
was stoned to death, a sacrifice on the altar of Egoism, the
arch-enemy of both sexes.

And although it seems a long, long time from that day to this, we may
look back over the Ages, and see the thread unbroken, connecting the
Past with the Present; uniting the women of those days with their
sisters of today; and we find the answer to this far-off outrage upon
the spiritual function of sex, in the horrors of our white slavery,
among which horrors, the greatest is not alone the barter and sale of
that which should be recognized