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212 ESOTERIC ANTHROPOLOGY.
her sexual desires with a man, though
from gratifying
she may destroy herself by masturbation. In fact, the
most rigid prudes, those who repulse all the approaches
of men the most indignantly, and who condemn all free
dom in others most violently, are commonly those who
have destroyed all desire or capacity for pleasure in
themselves by early and continued self-pollution. This
is civilized virtue !
Virtue, in a married woman, is to submit to the em
braces of a husband she never loved, or has ceased to
love, and to deny herself to any other. A true chastity
and a true fidelity are worthy of all praise ; but there
are few things in the world more false than what is
often considered virtue. My definition of virtue, in
man or woman, is a life in harmony with nature, which
means, in its fullest sense, a life of obedience to the
laws of God. Some of these laws I have endeavored
to explain. No natural passion, no healthy attraction
of any being is wrong ; for that Being, God, who dis
tributes attractions, governs the harmonies of the uni
verse. We produce only discord, when we use our
freedom to oppose them. Civilization is the aggrega
tion of discordances, produced by men substituting their
absurd contrivances and selfish maxims and laws, for
the wise and beneficent intentions of the Deity, as dis
played in the attractions He has implanted in the nature
of man, and the harmonies of universal nature.
Owing to the usurped despotism of man over woman,
the civilized standard of virtue differs much in the
sexes. A woman is expected to come, a chaste virgin,
to the arms of her husband ; but a man would incur rid
icule who should make such a pretension. A man who