ABSTRACT

Mr. Montagu Cookson, writing in the Fortnightly Review, says: If, indeed, could all become perfect beings, the rule of life deduced by Malthus from the unalterable law of population would be both practicable and safe; as it is, it has a direct tendency to promote the cardinal vice of cities—that of unchastity. The asceticism which despises the body is a contempt of nature, and a revolt against her; the morality which upholds virginity as the type of womanly perfection is unnatural; to be in harmony with nature, men and women should be husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and nature evolves a neuter sex celibacy will ever be a mark of imperfection. The check which appears to be preferable, as grating on no feeling of affection or of delicacy, is that recommended by Carlile many years ago in his "Every Woman's Book". In order that impregnation should take place, "the absolute contact of the spermatozoa with the ovum is requisite".