Essays in medical sociology, Volume 1 (of 2)Blackwell, Elizabeth
Science
Essays in medical sociology, Volume 1 (of 2)
Blackwell, Elizabeth
Prostitution; Sexual ethics; Social medicine
The first step towards the moral education of the youth of a nation is
a clear perception on the part of parents of the true aim of education,
with the individual action to which such perception leads. The second
step is combination--_i.e._, the determination to secure this end by
the strength of union. It is true that individual efforts are the
foundation on which any power must rest that wishes to lift society
to a higher level, and we find at present innumerable individuals
keenly alive to the evils in which we are involved, and earnest in
seeking a remedy. There are very many families where father and mother
work together with unwearied effort to ennoble home life, but these
individual efforts, these aspirations and patient endeavours, although
indispensable as a foundation, are isolated and scattered; they are
continually overpowered by the evil influences existing outside the
family. Organized effort is needed--resolute and united action--to
meet the organized dangers of the present age. The condensed review
in the preceding pages of the causes which produce the present low or
diseased condition of the humanizing principle of sex, indicates the
immense range of subjects which its consideration and guidance involve.
No isolated individual, no single family, can work out for itself a
solution of the present problem, or command the means for securing the
moral welfare of the most cherished child. Change in the conditions of
life may be wrought by united effort; it cannot be attained by isolated
effort. When we consider the innumerable objects for which strength is
gained by association, and that this rational principle is constantly
extending its operation in the present age, it is evident that any
strong leading principle capable of enlisting devotion and steady
enthusiasm affords sound basis for combination and organization. Such
a leading principle is found in the clear conviction of the nobility
of the spiritual principle of sex in the human being, the binding
obligation of one moral law for all, and the regenerating power of
this law upon the human race. It is a principle capable of enlisting
religious devotion and embodying itself in the most valuable practical
action. Methods of combination inspired by this principle are clearly
conceivable which would be susceptible of the widest application.
Indications of such combination are already visible, and these must
constantly extend themselves as this great idea of the present
age--_the true view of Sex_--grows into complete development.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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