ABSTRACT
The sexual impulse undoubtedly resembles hunger in this fact, that in a state of nature it is far from dainty. Throw any man and any woman together as the sole inhabitants of a remote and solitary American farmstead, the nature of their impulsive life will ensure their speedy sexual union. Abstractly considered, the sexual instinct has no moral values, either positive or negative; like hunger, it is unsusceptible of mensuration. It exists, that is all, altogether apart from the realm of ethical values. Whilst the law thus limits its attention to certain well-defined instances, the moral code condemns sexual intercourse effected either without full mutual consent or without full understanding of the nature of the act, or by means of false promises. The satisfaction of sexual hunger in a love-act freely undertaken by both parties does not infringe in any way the basic principles of ethics—not even in the field of free love.
