First, to lay it down
that we do not commix for the sake of pleasure, but of the procreation
of children. For the powers, the organs, and desires for coition have
not been given by God to man for the sake of pleasure, but for the
procreation of the race. For as it were incongruous for a mortal born
to partake of divine life, the immortality of the race being taken away,
God fulfilled the purpose by making the generations uninterrupted
and continuous. This, therefore, we are especially to lay down as a
principle, that coition is not for the sake of pleasure.' But nature,
not trusting to this moral and abstract motive, seems to have provided
more securely for the perpetuation of the species, by making it the
effect of the _oestrum_ implanted in the constitution of both sexes.
And not only has the commerce of love been indulged on this unhallowed
impulse, but made subservient also to wealth and ambition by marriages,
without regard to the beauty, the healthiness, the understanding, or
virtue of the subject from which we are to breed. The selecting the best
male for a Haram of well chosen females, also, which Theognis seems
to recommend from the example of our sheep and asses, would doubtless
improve the human, as it does the brute animal, and produce a race of
veritable
[Illustration: page227].
For experience proves, that the moral and physical qualities of man,
whether good or evil, are transmissible in a certain degree from father
to son.
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