The science of sex : an essay towards the practical solution of the sex problem / by John Allen Godfrey.

  • Godfrey, John Allen.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The science of sex : an essay towards the practical solution of the sex problem / by John Allen Godfrey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sexual organism in its physical, emotional, and intellectual aspects, and to discover the laws of its sexual life. He is entitled, in short, to reason about love. These preliminary considerations wTill give at least a working support to our first proposition—that a science of sex is a possible thing. The second proposition that it is a desirable thing—is almost equally important and cer¬ tainly requires equally careful proof, hrom the puiely scientific point of view, of course, the proposition has no meaning. The man of science does not stop to consider whether the acquirement and classification of any kind of knowledge is a good thing or a bad thing. It is his busi¬ ness, as a man of science, to so acquire and classify all the knowledge he can gain; the good or evil of it he leaves to the moralist. But in such a subject as that of sex, the moral aspect comes first and foremost into the minds of almost everyone. So largely indeed does the idea of sex bulk in our moral life that the expression “an immoral man” nearly always means a sexually immoral man, not merely one who lies or steals or cheats. In the same way “immorality” is used in the reports of religious bodies on the condition of the people in the sense of sexual im¬ morality. Therefore it is impossible to construct a science of sex (especially one with a practical aim) without tres¬ passing on the moral sphere and inviting criticism on moral grounds. The duty of defending the enterprise as regards morality becomes still more imperative when it is remembered that on such subjects moral feeling runs highest. In tlio present state of society, breaches of the accepted laws of sexual morality are visited with a social ostracism which is often more crushing than any mere legal condemnation could be. When it is proposed to open up these laws to