Page:The Virile Powers of Superb Manhood.djvu/91

Rh abnormal physical conditions and excesses, resulting largely from gross ignorance of those laws with which every adult human being should be familiar.

Marriage was a well-known and popular institution long before the human race ever thought of refinement, of civilization and its varying environments. The brute husband was able to hold his human property by a power stronger than all earthly forces; that is, mere physical attraction. Marriage was then entirely a physical union. It was contracted and continued on that basis. There was but little ceremony about it—usually none. A man desired a woman, and if this desire was mutual, he took her. Sometimes even her acceptance was not required. This was marriage at that time. Though we have advanced intellectually—though man has made tremendous strides in all that pertains to the graces of culture and refinement, a true marriage still must have physical attraction for its foundation, and is primarily and fundamentally a physical union.