The beautiful and delicate flowers of married love need to be watched and tended with the most skilful care, continually, by both husband and wife.  Treated in this way, they will not only be fragrant and lovely through all the years of wedded life; but as, one by one, the blossoms shed their petals and change their forms so that luscious fruits may come in turn—­as these changes take place, new, more beautiful and more fragrant flowers will continue to the very end of the longest married life.  Don’t ever forget this, or doubt it, as you hope for happiness in the marriage state!  Mind what is here said, and act accordingly all the time—­days, nights and Sundays.

Now if these truths are thoroughly inculcated, “kicked in” so firmly and deeply that they will never “jar loose” or get away, we will move on.

So, then, the first part of every act of coitus should always be a courting act, in which there should be no haste, but in which the parties should “make delays,” as John Burroughs says.

And this should be added:  that, for married lovers, courting has a far wider range of possibilities than it has for the unmarried.  Previous to marriage, there are conventionalities and clothes in the way!  After that, neither of these need be in evidence, and this makes a lot of difference, and all in favor of the best results, if rightly used, and made the most of.  One hardly need to go into details here, (though this may be done later on in this writing).  If the lovers will be as free with each other unclothed as clothed; if they will utterly ignore all conventionalities, and do with and for each other anything and everything that their impulses and inclinations suggest, or their desires prompt; if they will, with the utmost abandon give themselves up to petting each other in every possible way that mother nature has put within their reach; if they will hug and kiss and “spoon” and “play with each other” just as they want to do—­if they will do this, and not hurry about it—­then, in due course, they will successfully execute the first act of the great play they are performing; the sex organs will become fully ready for the union they are both longing for; the “prostate flow” will have added to the erect condition of the penis; the walls of the vagina and all the area of the vulva will be enlarged, soft, flexible and made smooth and slippery by a most generous supply of the “pre-coital secretion” and everything will be in perfect readiness for the next part of the performance, namely the union of the organs.

And here it becomes necessary to say something about the position of the parties in making such union.  There are a large number of these possible, some of which may be noted later, but here, only the most common one will be considered (it is said there are more than forty different positions possible in this act).