Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III Mental and Spiritual Significance of Sex MEN have always taken pride in their virile powers. To be virile means to be strongly sexed, and that does not mean simply to have well-developed sex organs. It means that every particle of the body feels strongly the impulse of masculinity. Women should learn to rejoice also in being strongly sexed, which means that every particle of their bodies feels the characteristic impulse of femininity. The masculine impulse is positive, active, destructive. The feminine impulse is passive, negative and constructive. These two, therefore, supplement each other, and both are essential to a fully developed, well balanced racial life. Here is found the strongest possible reason for joint responsibilities between man and woman in the government of a community or a nation. Neither one of these two beings can fill the place of the other, and both are equally essential to a well- rounded, perfectly balanced national life. Thus we see that sex holds a more important place in life than has been imagined. We know today, also, that the sex organs fulfill a much more important function in the life of the individual than has hitherto been supposed. Indications of the importance of these organs have not been lacking. Take, for instance, the fact that if the sex organs of animals are removed atan early age, the animal will not develop the qualities which belong distinctively to its sex. The patient horse lacks the fire and energy of the proud stallion. The plodding ox forms a marked contrast to the fiery bull. Similar examples have not been lacking in human life, for in earlier ages boys were sometimes deprived of these organs and grew up into effeminate creatures, lacking all manly qualities, both physical and mental. Elsewhere I have desc...