It is highly probable, though, that many women who are counted as thus lacking are not, really, so! Many women will begin married life wholly anesthetic, and, often, sometime will become normal in this regard. This often happens.  The probability is that many wives are not properly “courted” by their husbands—­THE FIRST PART OF THE ACT IS NEGLECTED, or the husband merely acts on his rights—­cohabits like a goat, all in an instant, anxious only to gratify his own lust; and that, under such treatment, the wife never gets a fair chance to really know her own powers.  Such cases are sad beyond telling.  For the most part, they are the result of ignorance on the part of the husband, and innocence and wrong teaching—­wrong mental attitude—­on the part of the wife.  HENCE THE NEED OF INSTRUCTIONS TO BOTH.

But if almost any woman will get the right mental attitude toward sex-meeting, and then can be courted, as has been prescribed in these pages, the cases are rare indeed where a woman can be found who is really anesthetic.  If you, wife, or you, husband, are “up against” such a condition, try “courting,” as herewith laid down, in a proper mood and spirit, and you will come out all right.  There is no doubt of it.

On the contrary, if the man is “impotent” there is small hope of his ever coming out of such condition, and the chances are many to one that he will never be able to satisfy his wife sexually.  He may be a “good man,” in a way, but he can never be a good husband, in the full meaning of that word.

On the other hand, if a woman marries for money, or a home, or position, or place, or power, or a “meal-ticket”—­for anything but love, she will doubtless be anesthetic and stay so.  She deserves to!  She sells herself for a mess of pottage, whoever she is.  She may be a “good woman,” but she can never be a good wife.

The question is sometimes asked as to how late in life the sex organs can function pleasurably and wholesomely for the parties concerned.  And here, as elsewhere, the reply can only be that it all depends on the individual.  But this is true, that, as a rule, the status of the individual during the years of active life will persist, even to old age, if the sex-functions are used and not abused.  There is no function of the body, however, which will “go to pieces” quicker, and ever after be a wreck, as will the sex organs, if they are not treated rightly.

And this works both ways:  If too rigorously held in check, if denied all functioning whatever, the parts will atrophy, to the detriment of the whole nature, physical, mental, and spiritual.  The body will become “dried up,” the sex organs shriveled, and a corresponding shrinking of the whole man or woman, in all parts of the being, is very apt to follow.