nimalistic in function is implied, if not
expressed, by some workers for the "purity" movement. I sincerely
believe that such a view will inevitably tend to increase the feeling
that sexual processes are heritages from the beasts which unfortunately
must be tolerated because nature has provided no other way for
perpetuating human life.

[Sidenote: Sexual pessimism.]

An intelligent woman, a happy wife and mother, who had accepted this
ascetic and pessimistic view of sex, said the other day: "Oh, love and
marriage and motherhood would be so beautiful were it possible to
escape the unspeakably vulgar facts of physical life!" Poor woman! It
must have been some fiend incarnate who in the guise of a prophet of
purity preached to her the animalistic interpretation of sex, which
made her overlook the fact that the very beauty which she could not
quite grasp had its origin in her emotions arising from the despised
sexual nature.

This is not an isolated case. Several young women who have graduated
from college within ten years vouch for the statement that many
thoughtful students are strong in the belief that ideal marriage is
platonic friendship and that it is a sad fact of life that husband and
wife must lay aside their high ideals in order to become parents.

Such depressing interpretations of life are bound to come from the
radical type of "purity" preaching based on the sexual mistakes of the
past and on the lives of animals. A similar pessimistic view regarding
the function of eating might be based on mistakes of drunkards and
gluttons and on the habits of the porcine family. If these are to guide
our conduct, then food-taking is to be regarded as a necessary but
vulgar habit inherited from our animal ancestors; and if we are to be
logical and attempt to rise to ideal purity in eating, we must hasten
to dispense with the culinary science and all the aesthetics which have
made civilized eating a fine art. Of course, this is just what the
strict ascetic does; but such radical disbelievers in the pleasures
that we have associated with eating would be declared lunatics in any
civilized country.

[Sidenote: Two kinds of hunger.]

I have chosen eating for illustrating my point, for the demands for
food and for sexual activity are the two primal and necessary forms of
hunger. The hunger for food has led to the refinements of civilized
dining, but there has been great evolution. The animals feed (German,
fressen) in order