[65] G. Tarde, “L’Amour Morbide,” Archives de l’Anthropologie Criminelle, 1890, p. 585.

[66] Lucretius, Lib.  IV, vv. 1150-1163.

[67] Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Part III, Section II, Mem.  III, Subs.  I.

[68] Judith Cladel, Auguste Rodin Pris sur la Vie, 1903, pp. 103-104.  Some slight modifications have been made in the translation of this passage on account of the conversational form of the original.

[69] W. Cyples, The Process of Human Experience, p. 462.  Even if (as we have already seen, ante, p. 58) the saint cannot always feel actual physical pleasure in the intimate contact of humanity, the ardor of devoted service which his vision of humanity arouses remains unaffected.

[70] “To love,” as Stendhal defined it (De l’Amour, Chapter II), “is to have pleasure in seeing, touching, and feeling by all the senses, and as near as possible, a beloved object by whom one is oneself loved.”

[71] Pillon’s study of “La Memoire Affective” (Revue Philosophique, February, 1901) helps to explain the psychic mechanism of the process.

THE MECHANISM OF DETUMESCENCE.

I.

The Psychological Significance of Detumescence—­The Testis and the Ovary—­Sperm Cell and Germ Cell—­Development of the Embryo—­The External Sexual Organs—­Their Wide Range of Variation—­Their Nervous Supply—­The Penis—­Its Racial Variations—­The Influence of Exercise—­The Scrotum and Testicles—­The Mons Veneris—­The Vulva—­The Labia Majora and their Varieties—­The Pubic Hair and Its Characters—­The Clitoris and Its Functions—­The Anus as an Erogenous Zone—­The Nymphae and their Function—­The Vagina—­The Hymen—­Virginity—­The Biological Significance of the Hymen.

In analyzing the sexual impulse we have seen that the process whereby the conjunction of the sexes is achieved falls naturally into two phases:  the first phase, of tumescence, during which force is generated in the organism, and the second phase, of detumescence, in which that force is discharged during conjugation.[72] Hitherto we have been occupied mainly with the first phase, that of tumescence, and with its associated psychic phenomena.  It was inevitable that this should be so, for it is during the slow process of tumescence that sexual selection is decided, the crystallizations of love elaborated, and, to a large extent, the individual erotic symbols determined.  But we can by no means altogether pass over the final phase of detumescence.  Its consideration, it is true, brings us directly into the field of anatomy and physiology; while tumescence is largely under control of the will, when the moment of detumescence arrives the reins slip from the control of the will; the more fundamental and uncontrollable impulses of the organism gallop on unchecked; the chariot of Phaethon dashes blindly down into a sea of emotion.