To the great-hearted public this is becoming intolerable.  But they know so little, and they wait so long for what the wise ones fear to tell.  Not all these fears are sordid; there is a kind and gracious reluctance to shatter ideals.  It is hard at times to combine beauty and duty.  The way of the truth-teller is not made easier by charges of iconoclasm.  “To know all is to forgive all”; that is not paganism but Christianity.  So also, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.”  “To err is human:  to forgive divine.”  Humanity, wisdom, tolerance, are wrapped up in these sayings.  Yet when we think, as think at times we must, of the romantic faith that once was ours, contrasted with the realities of present experience, sex seems to have lost something of its soul of loveliness.  And yet—­can it ever regain this till men and women are at least clean?

If not—­if the immoral man cannot be made better but rather worse, much worse, by needlessly infecting him with syphilis, then clearly the ideals of beauty and duty demand that we should apply effective sexual sanitation to the Nation until such time as we are all, every one of us, free from venereal disease.  That time is not yet—­and this is the essence of the whole problem.  But victory is within sight.  When it comes—­then, and not till then—­sex will regain its soul of loveliness.  To this end—­

  “Let knowledge grow from more to more,
     But more of reverence in us dwell,
     That mind and soul, according well,
   May make one music as before,
   But vaster.”

  Tennyson.

NOTE.

The Author will reply personally to any serious question concerning the subject matter of this book, provided stamped and addressed envelope is sent to her, c/o the Publishers.

APPENDIX I.

OTHER METHODS OF CONTRACEPTION.

1. Withdrawal.—­Immediately before emission the male organ is quickly withdrawn, to avoid emission of seminal fluid in the vagina.  Many men and women feel this to be unromantic and nerve-racking, and otherwise objectionable.  The method is quite commonly practised, but it is unreliable in multiple connections, and where the man has not complete control over himself.  It leaves the woman at the mercy of the man for protection against impregnation.

2. Sheath or Condom ("French Letter").—­This prevents both conception and infection (excepting in parts not covered by the sheath), but sheaths are apt to break, and sometimes a man infects himself whilst removing the sheath.  Sheaths impose an impermeable medium between husband and wife, destroy contact, and may thereby prevent the joy of sexual intercourse.  In some cases both husband and wife become nervous wrecks, recovering their health when the sheaths are discarded; in other cases it is claimed that no harm has resulted.