CHAPTER XVII

CHASTITY AND MARRIAGE TEMPERANCE

In the indulgence of the appetites is a manifest necessity for health and efficiency-temperance in work and play, in eating and drinking, in novel reading and theater going, in whatever activity desire may suggest.  But two appetites stand on a different footing from the others, and demand more than temperance.  The love of alcohol and the other narcotics, being, as we have seen, a pathological and highly dangerous appetite, productive of scarcely any real good, must be completely rooted out of human nature, as it readily can be, to the great advantage of mankind.  The other great appetite, that of sex, cannot be treated so cavalierly; to eradicate it or deny its fulfillment would be to put a speedy end to the human race.  The solution of the problems of sex is therefore not so simple, the remedying of the evils of which sexual passion is the source not so feasible.  On the one hand, we have to recognize the sex instinct as normal and necessary, the source of the keenest, and, indirectly, of some of the most lasting, pleasures of life; the denial of its enticements to the extent which our Christian ideal demands provokes perennial resentment and rebellion.  On the other hand, we are confronted by the incalculable evils which unrestrained lust produces, and forced to admit the imperious necessity of some strictly repressive code.  To many, the gravest dangers in life lie here; the sex instinct is the great rebel, promising a glorious liberty, a melting of the barriers between human bodies and souls, an ecstasy of mutual happiness that nothing else can offer.  Yet beyond these transient excitements lie the saddest tragedies-disease and suffering, unwished childbirth, heartbreak and death.  Desire sings a siren music in our ears; but the bones of those who have surrendered to the song lie bleaching on the rocks.  These sweet anticipations presage sorrow and ruin; there is no heavier sight than to see happy, heedless youth caught by the lure of this strange, mysterious thrill and drifting to their destruction-"As a bird hasteth to the snare, And know not that it is for his life.”  So much is at stake here that we must be more than ordinarily sure that we are not biased, that we are not binding ourselves by needless restrictions.  But after whatever doubts and wanderings, the man of mature experience comes back to the monogamous ideal with the conviction that in it lies not only our salvation but our truest happiness.  A thousand pities that so many learn the lesson too late!  Nothing in the whole field of ethics is more important than for each generation, as it stands on the threshold of temptation and opportunity, to see clearly the basic reasons for our hard-won and barely maintained code of chastity.  A reverence for authority, a deep-implanted sentiment, a recurrent emotional appeal, and a barrier of scruples and pledges may keep many within the lines of safety.  But the morality of sentiment and authority must always be based on a morality of reason and experience.  We must therefore begin by recapitulating the fundamental reasons for our monogamous ideal.