[86] See “Analysis of the Sexual Impulse,” and Appendix, “The Sexual Instinct in Savages,” in vol. iii of these Studies.

[87] I have elsewhere discussed more at length the need in modern civilized life of a natural and sincere asceticism (see Affirmations, 1898) “St. Francis and Others.”

[88] Der Wille zur Macht, p. 392.

[89] At the age of twenty-five, when he had already produced much fine work, Mozart wrote in his letters that he had never touched a woman, though he longed for love and marriage.  He could not afford to marry, he would not seduce an innocent girl, a venial relation was repulsive to him.

[90] Reibmayr, Die Entwicklungsgeschichte des Talentes und Genies., Bd. i, p. 437.

[91] We may exclude altogether, it is scarcely necessary to repeat, the quality of virginity—­that is to say, the possession of an intact hymen—­since this is a merely physical quality with no necessary ethical relationships.  The demand for virginity in women is, for the most part, either the demand for a better marketable article, or for a more powerful stimulant to masculine desire.  Virginity involves no moral qualities in its possessor.  Chastity and asceticism, on the other hand, are meaningless terms, except as demands made by the spirit on itself or on the body it controls.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PROBLEM OF SEXUAL ABSTINENCE.

The Influence of Tradition—­The Theological Conception of Lust—­Tendency of These Influences to Degrade Sexual Morality—­Their Result in Creating the Problem of Sexual Abstinence—­The Protests Against Sexual Abstinence—­Sexual Abstinence and Genius—­Sexual Abstinence in Women—­The Advocates of Sexual Abstinence—­Intermediate Attitude—­Unsatisfactory Nature of the Whole Discussion—­Criticism of the Conception of Sexual Abstinence—­Sexual Abstinence as Compared to Abstinence from Food—­No Complete Analogy—­The Morality of Sexual Abstinence Entirely Negative—­Is It the Physician’s Duty to Advise Extra-Conjugal Sexual Intercourse?—­Opinions of Those Who Affirm or Deny This Duty—­The Conclusion Against Such Advice—­The Physician Bound by the Social and Moral Ideas of His Age—­The Physician as Reformer—­Sexual Abstinence and Sexual Hygiene—­Alcohol—­The Influence of Physical and Mental Exercise—­The Inadequacy of Sexual Hygiene in This Field—­The Unreal Nature of the Conception of Sexual Abstinence—­The Necessity of Replacing It by a More Positive Ideal.

When we look at the matter from a purely abstract or even purely biological point of view, it might seem that in deciding that asceticism and chastity are of high value for the personal life we have said all that is necessary to say.  That, however, is very far from being the case.  We soon realize here, as at every point in the practical application of sexual psychology, that it is not sufficient to determine the abstractly right course along biological lines.  We have to harmonize our biological demands with social demands.  We are ruled not only by natural instincts but by inherited traditions, that in the far past were solidly based on intelligible grounds, and that even still, by the mere fact of their existence, exert a force which we cannot and ought not to ignore.