There are many reasons which make it most unadvisable for husband
and wife to occupy the same bed, and growing physiological knowledge
will sooner or later effect a change in this, as in many other of our
habits. In the first place, it is not desirable in this way to equalize
the magnetism of the two parties. Part of the mutual attraction is thus
lost. Then sleep is not so wholly undisturbed and refreshing as when
one is quite alone. But most important of all, the mere fact of contact
often arouses the animal when the will and judgment are asleep, and a
base union takes place, which is followed by regret, shame, and bodily
weakness.
A late writer on marriage, parentage, and kindred subjects takes the
ground that the sexual attraction exists solely for the production
of offspring. He gives the impression that, unless the minds of the
parties concerned are filled with the desire for parentage, the
physical union is wholly sensual and unjustifiable. Here the experience
of the very best men and women who should certainly give us a standard,
if one is possible, goes contrary to this view, and certainly we ought
not to discard this testimony for that of the unspiritual animal
world, especially when this varies from the human in being polygamous,
and each season choosing another mate; neither can it be supposed that
the animal of intuition creates offspring.
Then again, unless denied children, a man never has a thought of
parentage in that all-absorbing moment. It is his wife--the woman he
adores, to whom he is drawn as by an invisible magnet, and children
originating in this tender and impassioned embrace will be thus far
magnetic and well-born children. A desire for parentage is as good as
the love of woman, no doubt; but since it is in the order of nature for
a man to be concerned for the woman alone, should we interfere?
With regard to the best hour in the twenty-four for originating a new
life, I differ from most authors. Love is most private and interior,
shunning vulgar observation and the glaring light, therefore the quiet
hours of early morning best befit the expression of it.
Not many hundred years will elapse before the earth will be sufficiently
populated. Then large families of children will be a curse instead of a
blessing, and parents will be obliged to limit their powers of
reproduction to two children only. Will they then reduce the exercise of
the amative faculty to two occasions? We have yet much to discover on
this head.