Vetch

“ A Careful Study of this organ, of its location, of its arteries and nerves, will convince the growing girl that her body should never submit to corsets and tight lacing in response to the demands of fashion, even though nature has so bountifully provided for the safety of this important organ. By constant pressure the vagina and womb may be compressed into one-third their natural length or crowded into an unnatural position. We can readily see, then, the effect of lacing or tight clothing. ”

“ Her complexion was creamy, with a splendid brilliant color that came and went in her cheeks. Her expression of face was an indescribable blend of kindliness and haughtiness towards others, of austerity and cheerfulness inwardly, of intellectuality and comprehension towards life at large. She had acquired the statuesqueness of the conventional Vestal attitudes and movements, but she sat and stood so that all beholders felt a vivid impression of her vitality, of reserve strength, incomparably beyond anything possessed by her five colleagues. ”

“ There was the possibility that I might fall into step with the automatic puppets, become one of the squirrels in the treadmill, or one of the restless panthers behind the bars. In whichever direction I turned life seemed to be hopelessly dominated by these conditions: stupid, ovine existence, complicated, and often rendered ridiculous, by the arduous rigours of sex. The married were not free from it, less free from it, indeed, than the unmarried. With married couples I noted a constant suggestion of straining on the leash, a desire to break away into forbidden fields. ”

“ And then—Vesty? Well, will you not speak to me? Is it to be life and honor, with your love at last, or despair and death? You were promised to me once. In spite of all, you cannot hold yourself your own; you are mine; the wife God meant for me. O Vesty! ”

“ Or as Sir Michael Foster put it, "The animal body is in reality a vehicle for ova or sperm; and after the life of the parent has become potentially renewed in the offspring, the body remains as a cast-off envelope whose future is but to die." ”

“ In this position, face to face (and it should be noted that only in the human family is this position of coitus possible! Among mere animals, the male is always upon the back of the female. They—mere animals—can never look each other in the eye and kiss each other during the act! This is another marked and very significant difference between human beings and all other animals in this regard) it is perfectly natural and easy for the organs to go together, when properly made ready, as here-before described. ”

“ A word or two on the opposite extreme, continence. The reader will observe, in another page, the remark that every part, be it flesh, bone, or nerve, has its use. The reproductive organs have theirs; but it is not only for the propagation of the species—they afford an outlet for accumulated secretion—they aid in resolving the animal passions—they are the secret incentive to sexual love, and the bond of union between the sexes. They give an appetite that, like hunger, must be appeased, or nature revolts; and the harmony of society falls before the ungovernable fury of maniacal craving. ”

“ This baby, in green-blue trousers fashioned of some soft silk brocade, a pink jacket of the same material, and a head-dress prankt with ribbons into which ornaments of scarlet worsted and blue-bird feathers were twisted, was smiling silently and gracefully waving her tiny ivory hands towards the face of an outcast of the streets who stood beside her mother. I caught the rough workman's suit, the soiled, torn boots, the filthy cap, and the unkempt hair in my glance, which reverted to the baby. ”

“ The report of Havelock's earlier victories had been received with a burst of enthusiasm in England as the first gleam of light after the darkness of revolt and massacre, and his hitherto almost unknown name was on every tongue. As success followed success he became the popular hero, and the knowledge of his earnest religious character deepened the effect upon the public. ”

“ Why am I a sexual invert? I have an explanation to offer, which is perhaps more fanciful than scientific. Is there not a difference between the “protoplasm” or cellular tissue of males and of females, which is the ground of the difference in the physical and psychical development of the sexes? Must there not be in the protoplasm of males a specific male “germ” or characteristic, and in the protoplasm of females a different germ, which are the ground of the opposite development of the sexes? ”

“ Taking the eye, perhaps the most highly developed, complex organ in the body, and, if of an organ the term may be allowed, the most intellectual organ of sense, we find it remains the same in male and female in structure, in appearance, and in function throughout life; while the breast, closely connected with reproduction, though absolutely identical in both forms in infancy, assumes a widely different organisation when reproductive activity is actually concerned. ”

“ At last, she ceased, drawing back her head a little way. Her cheeks were flushed, her hands trembling, her breasts rising and falling. Seizing the boy's hands in hers, she turned him about until he faced her. ”

“ Among birds and mammals, the secondary sexual characters of one sex, such as size, pattern or colour, weapons or habits, may appear in animals with the gonads of the other sex, in every degree of development, reaching to an apparently complete reversal. In many cases these abnormal occurrences are associated with arrest of the functional activity of the primary organs of sex, by disease, accident, or decay, and the failure of the necessary stimulus would certainly serve to explain cases where the apparent reversal is no more than the suppression of a specialization in one direction. ”

“ His whole being was dominated by a Christian faith at once so real and so earnest that, although his religious views were tinged with mysticism, the object of his life was the entire surrender of himself to work out whatever he believed to be the will of God. ”

“ For example, the development of the sexual glands determines conspicuous physical and moral results—we note consequent effects on voice, hair, horns, structure of the skull and size of the muscles, no less than the rise of new feelings, desires, instincts, ideas. Any organic interference with the activity of the ovaries will alter the moral disposition of the animal: suppression of this organic process means non-development of the feelings of maternity; the moral superstructure is absent because its physical basis is wanting. ”

“ Inasmuch as they follow the growth of the genital organs, where this growth is periodical so are they periodical, and, where the genital organs are influential throughout life, the characters are permanent, waxing and waning, however, like the Stag's horns, with their progress from youth through maturity to senescence. ”

“ What is true of the horse is true of man. The [63] young man at puberty begins to receive from his testes the internal secretion which leads to the development of his full manly powers. The sum total of the qualities peculiar to manhood has been called VIRILITY. For want of a better word, this term has been applied to the sum total of the male qualities of any animal whatsoever, so that the male qualities of the stallion are also compassed in the term virility. ”

“ That, in regard to bodily strength, sexual continence adds energy to the muscular fibre, is clearly seen by observing the most ardent quadrupeds previous to the time of the union of their sexes. But, this being past, precisely in the same proportion does the act of reproduction debilitate and break down the strongest animal. Many male animals even fall almost exhausted by a single act of union with the opposite sex. ”

“ Wasp Waists.—Marrying small waists is attended with consequences scarcely less disastrous than marrying rich and fashionable girls. An amply developed chest is a sure indication of a naturally vigorous constitution and a strong hold on life; while small waists indicate small and feeble vital organs, a delicate constitution, sickly offspring, and a short life. Beware of them, therefore, unless you wish your heart broken by the early death of your wife and children. ”

“ For a brief time I hear about me only the rustling of stiff garments, the soft scuffling of feet, as one face after the other bends to touch my shoulder and that of the maiden—old women, young women, men, boys, people whom I never saw and shall never see again. ”

“ Very handsome she was, full-fleshed without a trace of plumpness, fun breasted without a hint of overabundance. Her brown hair, now grown long again after its ceremonial shearing at her entrance into the order of Vestals, was so dark that it was almost black. Arranged in the six braids traditional for Vestals and wound round her head like a coronet it became her notably. ”

“ Outram was a good soldier and a skilful diplomatist. Filled with ambition, he was nevertheless most unselfish. Possessed of great courage, a strong individuality, a warm temper, untiring energy, and good physique, he was kind-hearted, modest, and chivalrous. There used to be a Bombay service saying, ‘A fox is a fool and a lion a coward compared with James Outram.’ In speech Outram was hesitating until he warmed to a subject, when he could speak forcibly. ”

“ And when one thinks of what women have done in obedience to the tradesman's instincts in late years; narrowing their waists one season, widening their hips or accentuating the bust another, loosening the abdomen as from a tightened stem the next—these are the real obscenities which we perform in the shelter of the herd. ”

“ The girl-boy with diffused minor abnormality in physical structure, consisting in approach to the feminine type, is rather a female who has, along with some other male structures, developed testicles and penis in place of the usual ovaries and cunnus. ”

“ As to voice, which depends on the muscles of respiration, and more immediately on those of the mouth and throat, as general strength does on the muscles of the whole body, both merely affording expressions of the mind, the influence of the sexual union upon it is prodigious. How entirely it is altered by the removal of the testes in eunuchs is known to every one: in corresponding proportion, is it altered by every act of the generative organs, but especially by sexual indulgence during puberty. ”

“ With regard to the auxiliary primary organs, and especially the genital ducts and external organs of sex, in a majority of cases as in vertebrates, the embryonic or youthful condition is undifferentiated, and so to say, contains the initial material which may be elaborated by specialization in one direction or the other, by the proliferation of certain portions and the suppression of others, into the structures characteristic of the male or of the female. ”

“ All our limbs and sensual organs, in fact our whole body and life, are but an accretion round and a fostering of the spermatozoa. They are the real “He.” A man’s eyes, ears, tongue, nose, legs and arms are but so many organs and tools that minister to the protection, education, increased intelligence and multiplication of the spermatozoa; so that our whole life is in reality a series of complex efforts in respect of these, conscious or unconscious according to their comparative commonness. They are the central fact in our existence, the point towards which all effort is directed. ”

“ And that is why all the animals have their udders under the belly, women alone have their breasts high on their bodies, that they can lift up their babes to kiss, to dandle, and to fondle: seeing that their bearing and rearing children comes not from necessity but love. ”

“ He was in complete accord with the governor-general in his objection to annexation. Lawrence's general views, indeed, were that we should abstain from any enlargement of our territory that was not provoked by the absolute need of security; that we should enforce, by example, on the natives of India the duties of justice and forbearance, and apply ourselves to the task of raising the moral character of the governing and aristocratic classes, or such relics of them as were left, and so enable new Indian sovereignties to grow up under British protection. ”

“ I found him a fairly healthy man to look at, suffering from some neurasthenia and a tendency to melancholia. Generative organs large, one testicle shows some wasting, pubic hair abundant, form of body distinctly masculine; temperament neurotic. ”

“ On 27 June the government of Bombay expressed their great satisfaction at the successful termination of the expedition. During his residence in Khandesh, Outram was always ready for dangerous sport, and many a tiger fell to his gun. By his fearless bearing in the presence of danger, and his general prowess in the chase, he won the affection and admiration of the wild men among whom his lot was cast. ”

“ The influence exercised by Havelock over his troops, and the admirable discipline he maintained, are strikingly shown by the behaviour of the men on entering Cawnpore. The pitifulness of the scene presented by the remains of their murdered fellow-countrymen exasperated them to madness, but the firm hand of their commander held them in check, and even marauding was put down with a strong arm. ”

“ The corset cramps the form and the healthy development of the organs; it enfeebles the voluntary muscular system; it is incompatible with perfect grace and beauty; it diminishes the sum of active energy. It exerts, in short, the same kind of influence on physical responsibility as formal marriage on moral responsibility. ”