Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1: The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-ErotismEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1: The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-Erotism
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
Dugas goes further, and asserts that the ideals of modesty
develop with human development, and forever take on new and finer
forms. "There is," he declares, "a very close relationship
between naturalness, or sincerity, and modesty, for in love,
naturalness is the ideal attained, and modesty is only the fear
of coming short of that ideal. Naturalness is the sign and the
test of perfect love. It is the sign of it, for, when love can
show itself natural and true, one may conclude that it is
purified of its unavowable imperfections or defects, of its alloy
of wretched and petty passions, its grossness, its chimerical
notions, that it has become strong and healthy and vigorous. It
is the ordeal of it, for to show itself natural, to be always
true, without shrinking, it must have all the lovable qualities,
and have them without seeking, as a second nature. What we call
'natural,' is indeed really acquired; it is the gift of a
physical and moral evolution which it is precisely the object of
modesty to keep. Modesty is the feeling of the true, that is to
say, of the healthy, in love; it long exists as a vision, not yet
attained; vague, yet sufficiently clear for all that deviates
from it to be repelled as offensive and painful. At first, a
remote and seemingly inaccessible ideal, as it comes nearer it
grows human and individual, and emerges from the region of dream,
ceasing not to be loved as ideal, even when it is possessed as
real.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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