Nowhere, however, are the effects of imperfect functioning or incomplete bodies more acutely felt than in the married state; and that is why, if science had recognized the importance of securing happiness for this state, it would have left no stone unturned in order to restore to us the natural conditions on which happiness depends, instead of giving us ever more and more efficient substitutes. In our present world the effect of the body-despising values enters as a disturber of our bliss into almost every aspect of matrimony. It enters first in the form of our impaired physiques, and affects the female partner in two ways: it depreciates the quality of her most important _natural_ extra-corporeal equipment, _man_, and therefore the quality of her joy; and it further depreciates that joy through her own indifferent bodily condition. It enters next in the form of Puritanism, which, thanks to its associated fear of, and incompetence in, sexual matters, arrests the male partner’s impulses, causing him to hesitate, flounder, and frequently to fail, whereby the ideal relationship of two ardent lovers is marred, if not destroyed; and it usually succeeds in preventing them from attaining the top wave of ecstasy by imposing inhibitions against perfectly instinctive desires. Finally, it enters by rendering ever more and more harassing for the woman the natural consequences of conjugal intimacy—gestation, parturition, and lactation; and by converting these once beautiful and enthralling functions into things of ugliness and pain. We cannot here discuss the many ways in which our bodily disorders and defects interfere with the happy congress of man and wife. Suffice it to say, however, that science already gives a good deal of assistance even here, and is likely to perform a good deal more. At all events, this much we may say without impropriety—that, as fast as Puritanism and bodily imperfections together have conspired to cast a slur on sex by converting the congress of the human couple from an experience of magic beauty into an ordeal of both painful embarrassment and actual pain, not only have a certain number of women begun to think that conception without congress would be a god-send, but a scientific technique, which realizes this desideratum, has also been brought to ever greater efficiency. Artificial impregnation—the scientific aid again!—is now a thoroughly familiar operation, frequently performed; and, if the present tendencies continue, and the body-despising values culminate in their extreme logical consequence—the elimination of the body—there can be no doubt that it will become ever more and more customary. In the limited space at our disposal, however, we must concentrate upon gestation, parturition, and lactation in this chapter, more particularly as they form so important a part of woman’s share in married life.