Moral physiology ; or, a brief and plain treatise on the population question / [Robert Dale Owen].

  • Owen, Robert Dale, 1801-1877
Date:
[1846]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Moral physiology ; or, a brief and plain treatise on the population question / [Robert Dale Owen]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    their own unsuspicious or ungoverned feelings, betray to misery and degradation. He never sought the company but of the intel¬ lectual and self-respecting of the other sex, and has no associations connected with the name of woman, but those of esteem and respectful affection. To this day, he is even girlishly sensitive to the coarse and ribald jests in which young men think it witty to indulge, at the expense of a sex they cannot appreciate. The con¬ fidence with which women may have honoured him, he has never selfishly abused; and, at this moment, he has not a single wrong with which to reproach himself towards a sex which he considers the equal of man in all the essentials of character, and his superior in generous disinterestedness and moral worth. I check my pen. I have said enough, perhaps, to awaken the confidence of those whose confidence I value ; enough, assuredly, to excite the ridicule, or the sneer, of him who walks through life wrapped up in the cloak of conformity, and laughs, among his private boon companions, at the scruples of every novice who will not, like himself, regard debauchery and seduction (in secret) as manly and spirited amusements. And now, reader ! if I have succeeded in awakening your atten¬ tion and enlisting in this inquiry your reason and your better feelings, approach with me a subject the most interesting and important to you, to me, to all our fellow-creatures. If you be a woman, forget that I am a man ; if a man, listen to me as you would to a brother. Let us converse, not as men, nor as women, but as human beings, with common interests, instincts, wants, weaknesses. Let us converse, if it be possible, without prejudice and without passion ; whatever be your sex, sect, rank, or party, to you I address the poet’s exhortation—here far more strictly applicable than in the investigation to which he applied it:— “ Retire! the world shut out: thy thoughts call home: Imagination’s airy wing repress : Lock up thy senses : let no passion stir: Wake all to reason, let her reign alone.” CHAP. II. STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT. Among the various instincts which contribute to man’s preservation and -well-being, the instinct of reproduction holds a distinguished rank. It peoples the earth ; it perpetuates the species. Controlled by reason and chastened by good feeling, it gives to social inter¬ course much of its charm and zest. Directed by selfishness or governed by force, it is prolific of misery and degradation. Whether wisely or unwisely directed, its influence is that of a master principle, that colours, brightly or darkly, much of the destiny of man. It is sometimes spoken of as a low and selfish propensity j &c?