In only the single fact that, on the physical plane merely, coitus for the purpose of procreation is common to all animal life, mankind included, is there a point of comparison between humanity and the brute creation. Beyond that point there is nothing comparable between the two!  As well say that because beasts can hear, therefore they can comprehend and enjoy a Beethoven Sonata, or because they have eyes they can delight in a picture by Corot!

This is only another way of saying that sex has functions and uses in the human family that are entirely apart from the possibilities of all other animal life—­functions as much above mere animality as music is above mere physical hearing, as painting above mere physical sight.

These facts forever upset and overthrow all the theories of Dr. C. and Co., they entirely eliminate the whole bunch from any part or lot in the issue on which they have essayed to speak with such authority, but whose main point, whose essential elements they have entirely misunderstood, and hence have treated in a way that is wholly at variance with the truth in the premises, and it is the truth that we are looking for.

Once more (for it is well to go to the bottom of this matter while we are about it) the honest truth is, that it is the universal practice of the human race for men and women to cohabit for other purposes than reproduction, and it has always been so, since men and women were men and women!  It is true among the most savage and barbarous tribes of the earth, and it is more emphatically true of the highly civilized people in all lands and climes.  And is it reasonable to suppose that such a universal phenomenon should not have been intended to be as it is!  As well say that appetite for food is a mistake, one that ought to be eliminated!

Again, the experiences of men and women, all over the world, prove that, where this act is engaged in properly, according to the laws that obtain in the premises, it conduces to the highest physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of the parties concerned.  Indeed, it is beyond doubt true that the men and women who have never known this most perfect of all human experiences, have never reached the summit of human attainment, have never arrived at the perfection of manhood and womanhood.  Length of life, health of the highest sort, and happiness, the most delectable—­all come, these and more, to men and women by this route, if it is rightly traveled.  Hell and damnation result if that road is wrongly trod!

And that’s what makes the manner of traveling it so important.

VI

THE ACT OF COITUS

Strictly speaking, the act of coitus should be considered as composed of four parts, or acts, of one common play, or drama.  Not that there is a sharp line of demarcation between each act or part, for the four really blend into one composite whole, when taken together, seriatim; but there are four phases of the act which may well be studied separately, in making a detailed review of a sexual meeting of a man and a woman.