Page:B20442294.djvu/360

332 happens that young men who are wrapped up in their work are told by women to whom they appeal and who would prefer to have them paying them attention, or even as sons-in-law, that "they ought not to work too hard" that they ought to "enjoy life." At the bottom of this sort of advice there lies a feeling on the woman's part, which is none the less real because it is unconscious, that her whole significance and existence depend on her mission as a procreating agent, and that she goes to the wall if man is allowed to occupy himself altogether with other than sexual matters.

That women will ever change in this respect is doubtful. There is nothing to show that she ever was different. It may be that to-day the physical side of the question is more to the fore than formerly, since a great deal of the "woman movement" of the times is merely a desire to be "free," to shake off the trammels of motherhood; as a whole the practical results show that it is revolt from motherhood towards prostitution, a prostitute emancipation rather than the emancipation of woman that is aimed at: a bold bid for the success of the courtesan. The only real change is man's behaviour towards the movement. Under the influence of modern Judaism, men seem inclined to accept woman's estimate of them and to bow before it.

Masculine chastity is laughed at, and the feeling that woman is the evil influence in man's life is no longer understood, and men are not ashamed of their own lust.

It is now apparent from where this demand for "seeing life," the Dionysian view of the music-hall, the cult of Goethe in so far as he follows Ovid, and this quite modern "coitus-cult" comes. There is no doubt that the movement is so widespread that very few men have the courage to acknowledge their chastity, preferring to pretend that they are regular Don Juans. Sexual excess is held to be the most desirable characteristic of a man of the world, and sexuality has attained such pre-eminence that a man is doubted unless he can, as it were, show proofs of his prowess. Chastity, on the other hand, is so despised that