Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/95

Rh It is not immoral to get tired of a legal husband upon closer acquaintance and to conceive a new love for another man; but it is immoral to continue, or to be obliged to continue, the old relation notwithstanding this new love.

It is not immoral to consider "chastity" in itself just as much of a stupidity as starvation in itself; but it is immoral to carry "unchastity" to the point of excess.

It is not immoral to persuade a woman to yield herself, but it is immoral to offer her nothing as the prize of her devotion but a feigned love.

In short, it is immoral to disregard the equal rights of the other sex; to abuse it for selfish ends; to falsify or to confuse the ends of nature; to degrade the sexual relation simply to a meansfor frivolously satisfying the senses or for low speculations; to disfigure the beauty of sexual iove by priestly nonsense; to pollute true sentiment by coarse hypocrisy. Be ashamed of these immoralities and you will no longer need any other shame!

There is, indeed, another kind of shame, which ought, however, not to bear this name, since no moral flavor attaches to it. It is that delicate shyness which the virgin feels when she is to step