To be sure, there has been preserved, from time to time, a body of professional knowledge of this sort, made and prepared by physicians, but confined strictly to that class of people.  No attempt has been made to disseminate such knowledge among those who most need it—­the common people.  On the contrary, every possible effort is put forth to keep such knowledge from them.  This is wholly at variance with the practice regarding all other forms of human knowledge, which is to spread, as widely as possible, all known data that have so far been obtained.

There is not space, in this small volume, for pointing out the reasons for this anomalous condition of affairs, but the chief cause of its status, past and present, is grounded on two sources:  The first of these is a brutal selfishness which has come over to modern times from a savage past; the second is a sort of pious prudery.

The result of these causes has been to make the whole subject of sex in the human family, with its functions and mission in human affairs, together with its proper training, discipline and exercise—­to make all these things tabu, something to be ashamed of and ignored as much as possible, and all the knowledge regarding them that one generation has been permitted to transmit to those who come after, may be summed up in these words, namely “Thou shalt not.”

Now it goes without saying that, in the very nature of things, all this is just as bad as it can possibly be.  For, of all phenomena with which the human race has to do, that of the highest importance, so far as the well-being of the race is concerned, is that which has to do with sex in men and women.  A large percentage of all the physical ailments in mankind and womenkind arise from errors in sexual life, and these are but trifles compared with the mental and spiritual disasters which come upon humanity from the same source.  It is probably true that more than one-half of all the crimes that are committed in the civilized world are more or less directly connected with sex affairs, and there is no so common a cause for insanity as sex aberrations.

And nearly all these ills, crimes and misfortunes arise because of ignorance in the matter of sex in which the rank and file of the race are forced to live.  Few of these ever acquire any positive and definite knowledge in the premises, and if they do learn anything for sure, they keep it to themselves, inspired to do so by a false belief regarding the rightful transmission of such knowledge; or, by a false modesty, or prudery, they are kept from telling to anyone else what they have discovered or found to be the truth in these matters.  And so the people stumble along in ignorance of these vital affairs in life, generation after generation, repeating the errors of their predecessors, and no positive progress being made as the years go by.  Because of this state of affairs millions of human beings die every generation, and other millions suffer the tortures of the damned while they live, when they should enjoy the delights of the elect, and would do so if they only knew the actual facts in the case, and would act in accordance with the knowledge that ought to be made theirs.