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150 ESOTERIC ANTHROPOLOGY.
forward, is to produce
nature;
abortion. It is the law of all
a law that is said never to be violated even
among savages, out of Christendom, that there should
be no sexual unio'n during gestation. It is not permit
ted among animals, and over three quarters of the world
is looked upon as infamous in our own species. It is
also inconsistent with the performance of the function
of lactation, for reasons which will be given hereafter.
I do not wish to speak authoritatively in so delicate a
matter. Let eveiy man and woman look at the facts,
and decide. I see no reason a physiological why woman
should desire sexual union, after pregnancy, until her
next menstrual period, which will not normally take
place until she has finished nursing.
Man differs very materially from woman in the exer
cise of the procreative function. From the age of
puberty, the action of the testis is uninterrupted. 1
can find no hint of periodicity, unless it has been crea
ted by habit. Whatever restraints he may have, must
be moral ; for they are not physical, like woman's.
And while, in woman, the production of ova ceases at
from forty-five to fifty, the activity of the organs in
man continues, and he is capable of generating until a
late period of life, and in some cases when more than a
century old. Man has no function corresponding in
periodicity to menstruation ; no diversions of the vital
forces engaged in this function, like those of pregnancy
and lactation.
These differences may involve grave questions of
morals and social polity, but these it is not my province
to discuss or decide. In regard to woman, I give what
I believe to be the fact and the law, because it is very