I will briefly refer to another instance where the child so fatally
endowed was a boy.
The sisters of this boy--women of some presence--were already married,
and mothers, when their mother found herself pregnant at forty-five.
The husband was much gratified at the prospect of becoming a father at
sixty, and expressed this satisfaction in frequent relations with his
wife. It so happened that their pecuniary circumstances were easier
than at any previous time, and the wife employed “help,” which relieved
her of all the severer household duties. She was not an intellectual or
cultivated woman, and the unaccustomed leisure did not prove a boon,
since it left her with unspent strength to meet and respond to the
demands made upon her quite up to the time of the infant’s arrival.
Thus, you see, the boy had imparted to him over-active amativeness,
combined with small mental activities. How should he when a man
restrain _his_ passions, when during all his ante-natal life his
parents had put no restraint on theirs? He did not. He showed himself a
low bully among his school-mates, and the dread of the younger girls,
before he had reached his “teens.” After that, his sensual, brutal
behavior actually repelled his boy-companions. When a man, he barely
escaped being the inmate of a prison, as he had been already of worse
places.
The man who is dominated by this one quality is very often handsome,
magnetic, and attractive to women. He boasts privately, if not
publicly, of his conquests, holding no reputation sacred.
Perhaps to common observation he is a gentleman, and you hear of his
liasons in a whisper. Alas! for the wives of these gay cavaliers. They
lead a lonely life, since he spends the best of himself--his suave
manners and good nature--in fact, _all_ of himself elsewhere.
Suddenly and all unexpectedly you hear that this attractive man, not
forty-five, is sinking down with some insidious disease. It is called
neuralgia in the head, or paralysis, and the doctor has the promise of
a long job. It is, in fact, softening of the brain, caused by excessive
passional excitement and the undue drain on his vital forces. He may
live years, his digestive organs holding out better, because having
drifted into idiocy there is no longer any wear and tear of the mind.
This man has been “successful” with women, and this is the finale.