APPENDIX I. (Page 24)
Human procreation possesses a double relation—viz.,first, a relation to the race; and,second, a relation to the individual. In the former character, as the inevitable method of continuing the race, it is a great providential law whose mysteries we by no means comprehend, and which is placed quite beyond the control of the human will; but in the latter, the exercise of this great power of procreation possesses the distinctive mark of self-control, and as an individual act our power and responsibility are great. In this important subject of procreation, no one can speak with scientific precision and lay down absolute rules respecting its complete method of action. It has been wisely said by one of the most skilful and experienced French physicians:[6]‘No opinions put forth reconcile all facts. We are obliged to confess that there is a mystery in this subject, that our most ingenious theories fail to enlighten.’
In considering this subject in its relation to the individual, the beneficent educational uses of parentage to the individual must be realized, and the irreparableloss that human society would sustain from the absence or serious diminution of the parental relation. Parentage is the most potent and persistent civilizer and educator of our race. There is no other influence that will compare with the deep-seated and unique power of parentage in breaking down the narrow, unsocial barrier of exclusive individual selfishness. Much has always been said and written about maternal love, but there is a very deep significance in the persistence with which the Hebrew Scriptures exalt the power, the supreme beneficence of fatherhood; and there is a profound reason why universal Christendom is taught to address, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven.’ It is a special lesson to men. The mother, by the inevitable facts of her nature, when that nature is not corrupted, is moulded into tenderness and providential watchfulness over the weak and helpless; her nature is a harmonious whole, and, as a beneficent general rule, all women are potential mothers. But Nature does not so inevitably educate men. It is only when his first-born child is laid in his arms that the man awakens fully to the wonder and infinite tenderness of paternity. The character of the childless woman does not suffer from the absence of that beneficent discipline and development which come from parentage as does the character of the man. It is very instructive to observe how unmarried or childless women replace by adoptions or by pets their unexercised natural affections.
Any failure to realize the Divine purpose in thisjoining together of cause and effect amongst the mass of mankind, any efforts which tend to diminish respect for the parental relation and destroy the perception of its essential sacredness, must be disastrous to the welfare of a nation.
The educational influence of parentage as a fundamental fact in human progress must be borne in mind with all the reverence which is due to it, when we seek to remedy the hideous perversions of natural sentiment, which we find in our unhuman slums. It is not by destroying parentage, but by teaching its responsibilities and by restoring its educational influence upon the adult, that we must hope for progress.
In seeking to bring into the freedom of humanity, not only the swarms of poor fellow-creatures sweltering in city slums, but all classes of human beings struggling in the slough of unrestrained lust, we must reverently study Nature’s laws as they are gradually discovered in relation to parentage, by which the Creator gradually develops even the lowest forms of mankind through parentage.
The fact established by Raciborsky, the famous German physician, in a former generation is that ‘the period when conception is most likely to take place is near the time of menstruation, either just before it or during a few days after the time.’ It is not asserted that conception in the human race is necessarily limited to this interval of time, for it is true that great stimulus of the organs produced at any period of the month may bring about a similar congestion or special aptitude for conception.But the periodic character of the woman’s constitution regulates the probability of conception to so great an extent that by this law higher and lower sentient beings are brought into harmony, and woman assumes her due place as the regulator of sexual intercourse. Throughout the animal world procreation is governed by the will of the female. Not violence, but gentleness, is shown by the male to the female. Her refusal or desire guides sexual intercourse amongst the lower animals. To raise the human race to this higher animal level from which it has fallen is a special task of advanced physiology, which can show the physical method and reason of this redemption.
Human marriage must be regarded as a life companionship, in which the satisfaction of physical desires forms a secondary, not a primary, part. When so entered upon, love will direct its relations for the good of the two joined together in this unique union. The man joins himself to the woman in loving companionship, and her constitution henceforward must determine the times of the special act of physical union.
The foregoing physiological law is a truth full of hope and promise of infinite progress, for nations have hitherto perished in large measure through the abuse and degradation of women. The regulation of sexual intercourse in the best interests of womanhood is the hitherto unrecognised truth of Christianity, towards which we are slowly groping. When it is fully accepted, a fresh spring of vigour will have been discovered for the human race.