Page:The Relations Tolstoy.pdf/26

 The nearer to the opposite (the spiritual extreme), the less is new desire elicited and the fuller is the satisfaction. The nearer to the former (the physical) the more is it destructive to the powers of life: the nearer to the latter (the spiritual) the more peaceful, joyful, and stronger is the general condition. The union of man and woman into "one flesh" in the form of indissoluble monogamy the author regards as a necessary condition of the higher development of man. Marriage therefore according to the author's opinion, while presenting a natural and desirable state for all who have attained maturity, is not necessary a physical union but may also be a spiritual one only. In accordance with circumstances and temperament, and above all with that which those uniting regard as right, good and desirable, marriage, for some, will approach nearer to spiritual intercourse, for others to physical; but the more intercourse approaches the spiritual, the fuller the satisfaction. As the author acknowledges the fact that the same sexual propensities may lead to spiritual intercourse -to love, and to physical production -childbirth, and that one function may pass into the other under the influence of consciousness, he naturally not only does not admit of the impossibility of abstinence, but regard it as a natural and necessary condition of rational sexual hygiene in marriage as well as out of it. The whole article is furnished with a wealth of examples illustrating its arguments and with physiological data regarding the processes of sexual relations; their action and reaction on the organism, and the possibility of consciously directing them into one or the other channel ,that of love or production. In confirmation of his idea the author quotes the word of Herbert Spencer: "If a given