them has therefore died out (Matignon, Archives d’Anthropologie Criminelle, 1896, p. 72).  “Under present conditions,” writes Dr. F. Erhard ("Auch ein Wort zur Ehereform,” Geschlecht und Gesellschaft, Jahrgang I, Heft 9), “prostitution (in the broadest sense, including free relationships) is necessary in order that young men may, in some degree, learn to know women, for conventional conversation cannot suffice for this; an exact knowledge of feminine thought and action is, however, necessary for a proper choice, since it is seldom possible to rely on the certainty of instinct.  It is good also that men should wear off their horns before marriage, for the polygamous tendency will break through somewhere.  Prostitution will only spoil those men in whom there is not much to spoil, and if the desire for marriage is thus lost, the man’s unbegotten children may have cause to thank him.”  Neisser, Naecke, and many others, have pleaded for prostitution, and even for brothels, as “necessary evils.”

It is scarcely necessary to add that many, among even the strongest upholders of the moral advantages of prostitution, believe that some improvement in method is still desirable.  Thus Berault looks forward to a time when regulated brothels will become less contemptible.  Various improvements may, he thinks, in the near future, “deprive them of the barbarous attributes which mark them out for the opprobrium of the skeptical or ignorant multitude, while their recognizable advantages will put an end to the contempt aroused by their cynical aspect” (La Maison de Tolerance, These de Paris, 1904).

4. The Civilizational Value of Prostitution.—­The moral argument for prostitution is based on the belief that our marriage system is so infinitely precious that an institution which serves as its buttress must be kept in existence, however ugly or otherwise objectionable it may in itself be.  There is, however, another argument in support of prostitution which scarcely receives the emphasis it deserves.  I refer to its influence in adding an element, in some form or another necessary, of gaiety and variety to the ordered complexity of modern life, a relief from the monotony of its mechanical routine, a distraction from its dull and respectable monotony.  This is distinct from the more specific function of prostitution as an outlet for superfluous sexual energy, and may even affect those who have little or no commerce with prostitutes.  This element may be said to constitute the civilizational value of prostitution.

It is not merely the general conditions of civilization, but more specifically the conditions of urban life, which make this factor insistent.  Urban life imposes by the stress of competition a very severe and exacting routine of dull work.  At the same time it makes men and women more sensitive to new impressions, more enamored of excitement and change.  It multiplies the opportunities of social intercourse; it decreases the chances of detection of illegitimate intercourse while at the same time it makes marriage more difficult, for, by heightening social ambitions and increasing the expenses of living, it postpones the time when a home can be created.  Urban life delays marriage and yet renders the substitutes for marriage more imperative.[201]