Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/137

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SEX HYGIENE IN MARRIAGE
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dent in his wooing. He can afford to be more love-distracted, romantic, idealistic than the woman. In nine cases out of ten there is no definite sense of paternity mingled with his intense yearning for possession. The question of a family may scarcely enter into his reflections. He is the eternal male, urged on by an overwhelming impulse to seize the woman and bear her away. Her reluctance alternately stimulates and irritates him, and it may even cause exasperation and anger. The senses have overpowered him; the reason is arrested; he may behave insanely. For the lover and the lunatic cannot disclaim kinship. Passion is an exultation and a furore.

"Women who love with their whole beings often confess that there is joy in surrender and submission to a lover. The romantic young girl dreams of the valiant knight, tender and yet strong, who has the power to carry her away. But before a woman can abandon herself happily to the will of the suitor she must feel absolute confidence in his love. The bold lover is usually victorious, because his audacity is a sign to the maiden that he represents her ideal of forcefulness; and the manifestation of power gives her trust in his capacity as a future protector. I am writing now only of love, and not of the various social or mercenary incentives to marriage."

BENEFITS OF SEXUAL EXPRESSION

Key to Happiness in Marriage. Much has been said about the sublimation of sexual energy into channels of non-sexual productivity. While it is true that sexual energy may to a large extent be diverted into other forms of expression, it is equally true that there is a point in the normal person's life beyond which this process cannot be carried without