Page:Randolph, Paschal Beverly; Eulis! the history of love.djvu/148

Rh permanent; because Habit becomes even stronger tnan nature, as witness the use of narcotics, which all arc disgusted with at first. If people will but attempt in thus making a second nature, the barrenness, usual in such cases, will be obviated, as well as the premature senility and impotence resultant; for that both these effects are often owing to such causes is as clearly established as any other medical fact, albeit the sufferers are not always aware of the reason.

CXX. In all males of the human species the personal, physical charms of woman, based upon desire, is the central attractive point, round which all desires cluster. His better, nobler, higher love comes afterward. Reverse the case for woman. Her love never has that rise. She takes to the better side first—his social, mental, moral, spiritual manhood; and only after the lapse of time, frequently a whole year, does she awaken to the realization of the purely sensuous or passional; and uncounted thousands there are who never awaken thereto at all from the altar to the grave. If all such cases he is an unwise man who does not by careful and assiduous attention, by every delicate and tender means, seek to establish the natural equilibrium; by all true human methods arouse the dormant power in the breast of her who shares his lot and life.

CXXI. Prior to the actual marriage the husband loves deepest, most intensely and devotedly. But after that, his ardor cools, and a revulsion of feeling, amounting to dislike, is almost sure to follow; in which he is the exact opposite of woman; for it is then only that she begins to cling to him with a depth and fervor surprising to him, astonishing to herself. Wise is he who then gives her reason to make that love permanent, solid, lasting, even to the brink of the grave.

Men, all males in fact, love fiercest before marriage; all females, subsequent thereto. It is the Law. But a man must so comport himself at these primal interviews as not to wound her sensitive spirit, or cloud her life with gloom, dread, fear, suspicion. First impressions last the longest!

CXXII. Man's Love is never a steady stream, or constant force. He, so to speak, packs it away in the presence of other "Business,"