The universe, it is said by one theorist, was evolved; by another, who depends upon the Holy Book for a guide, all living creatures were thaumaturgically or miraculously, and “in the twinkling of an eye,” made to exist in full form and shape. This problem will never be settled to the satisfaction of all men as long as theory and faith are at war; and small is the prospect of peace while both parties are redoubling in their forces annually. Then, we can but accept the situation of the human race, as it is, since we have no historical data of its origin, that are beyond controversy and that would be accepted as evidence in a physiological point of view. But we need no ponderous evidence to show the truth of the premise, that animal life is not perpetuated except through sexual congress. Not life _only_, but good and evil of every degree; vice, folly, crime; love and hate; society, social evil and social good: all depend, largely, upon the sexual. It is the bond of our existence; it is the wheel of our fortune; it is our guiding star; and it may be our loadstone to crime and premature death. Passions leading to love, true and gentle, or jealousy, hate, revenge, murder and suicide, all hinge on circumstances connected, directly or indirectly, with the sexual.
Our schools are conducted upon a foundation entirely sexual; educating each of the sexes in the role they are to pursue, with reference to exclusiveness in conduct. The girl is taught to pursue only such vocations, practices and manners as are becoming to her sex; the boy, on the other hand, is instructed not to enact girlish capers, but to pursue masculine vocations, from the childish toys to settled, adult labors. This all means nothing but distinctive development of the sexes.
The sexual enters our every-day lives, from childhood up; it governs our development; it modulates the voice, the build, the dress, the hair, the fashion of wearing the dress, and even the gait. In all this we can but observe the worship of the sexual; though obscure, yet every manifestation of human existence points to it. The good people of the earth profit by the grand and noble sexual unity in the marital existence, and by the pure, social relations, and chaste affections of the unmarried; but these are but a small part of human society. The masses express their worship for the sexual by debauch, dissipation, vice and crime. The common saying, whenever suicide or murder has been committed, that “_woman was at the bottom of it_,” might just as well read, “_man was at the bottom of it_;” as without the one, where would the other have been?