Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/85

 with worry over his diminished potency, and sexual hypochondria is by no means rare. It sometimes happens, too, that concomitant with the diminishing of the sexual powers, there is an increase in desire which so often results in a neurosis.

This is particularly true of the Don Juan who has poured his passions prolifically upon the fires of Venus' altar, and in the twilight of his sexual activity the glowing embers of past memories inflame and mock his lusts, which he lacks the potency to feed. When the Don Juan finds himself in the throes of impotence, the burden of his lamentation is "Oh, for a month, a week, a day of my youth!"

As the normal reproductive period of life has been passed, the climacteric for both sexes may be considered the stage of readaptation of the bodily machinery to a more modified functional activity.

The physical activities from this time on for men used to strenuous effort, should be modified to conform to these changed constitutional conditions. This is by no means an argument for an inactive life, or for a sudden change from former physical habits when they are energizing and not harmful, but it is simply an admonition to avoid extremes.

In the realm of mental activities, the conditions are somewhat different. If a man has kept himself intellectually active, there need be no perceptible diminution in the intellectual output. As a matter of fact, the mental processes should be running at their maximum degree of efficiency. If constructive mental habits have been cultivated, intellectual work should be performed with greater ease, with the minimum of effort, and it is conscious effort, whether physical, mental or emotional, which tires, rather than activity which is performed largely by subconscious processes under the guidance of orderly mental habit.