The Third Sex.
“It is a painful tale you have told me, Professor,” said I, “I sincerely
hope you have got a pleasanter sequel to take off its sting. Well, our
race has always had its ups and downs. The one seems always to breed
the other. So as it has received a check now, that must be a prophecy
of better times ahead. After all I shall be disappointed if human wit
has been so completely baffled by that problem of population that it has
failed to find a way for its regulation without violation of the generous
instincts of humanity.”
“Your confidence in human wit is commendable from a patriotic point of
view,” returned the Professor, “but for this particular occasion it
is not entirely justified. The fact is that not many years ago your
race in North America and Europe had so crowded upon its conditions of
comfortable existence that it was in imminent danger of a disastrous,
if not total collapse. The efforts then made to prevent this, resulted
almost in the disorganization of society to such an extent that a
collapse from this cause was seriously threatened. Your race and
nation have been saved from such collapse and a repetition of one of
its numerous relapses into barbarism, not, however, by human wit this
time, but by the wisdom and generosity of the race I have the honor to
represent.”
“What! the Lunarians?”
“The same. Our people saw the straits to which the human family was
reduced, and willing that it should be spared the distress that they had
been compelled to undergo before the discovery of the means of protection
against themselves, they sent messengers to earth with the necessary
facts and instructions.”
“I am amazed, and gratified,” said I, “for this signal proof that
benevolence is not confined to any one world or race; but I am impatient
to know what this wonderful and essential secret is, that defied the
penetration of the wise of my own race.”
“Our belief,” said he, “is that it would not always have eluded them,
but they would have failed to apprehend it in time to save the race from
present disaster. The Lunarians have always taken a deep interest in
Mundane affairs, and have given many hints to man, some of which have
been acted upon with good results. But many others could not be properly
acted on or even fairly understood, because the education of your race
had not prepared them for it. We are often tempted to exclaim “what a
stupid race.” But then we remember how very young and immature you
are, and we remember too that once we were in a like state of infancy
ourselves, and so we exercise charity.”
“But what was the secret you told us?—I am anxious to learn at once, lest
some accident shall forever bar my opportunity.”
“Well the secret is the simplest thing in the world, and your scientists
have been reproaching themselves all over the earth for not having
discovered it themselves. In fact, as they say, they did discover all
around it when they lit upon the “Option of Sex.” It is simply the
conditions for the production at will of the _Third Sex_.”
“The Third Sex!” I echoed in amazement.
“Yes the Third Sex. I prefer that name, though some have called it the
neuter sex, others name it the Double Sex, or the Epicene or Common Sex,
others the Hermes-Aphrodite. In some respects it is all of these, or
either, or neither. But it is at any rate Third. I am not going to give
you the recipe,” said he, “for if I do, when you leave here, and now and
go back to the Nineteenth Century, you will be sure to let out the secret
prematurely by two hundred years. But I can say that the development
of the third sex is in reality no development at all, but an arrest of
development, at a particular prenatal period. If you are informed in the
science of embryology, you know that in the earliest stage of the embryos
of all sexual animals, the sex is not determined, and at that stage
there is nothing to distinguish whether the coming individual is to be
male or female. It possesses possibilities of either and therefore the
germs of both. At a second stage the elements of the essential organs of
both sexes are developed in each individual and then the individual is
both male and female, but not fully matured or developed. At the third
stage the organs distinguishing one of the sexes are carried forward
to functional perfection, while those pertaining to the other, are not
developed any further, and in some cases are partly undone again. Now if
the developement of the embryonic sexual organs be arrested during the
second stage of growth or before it, the individual will be neither male
nor female, but will belong to the third sex. The manner in which this
arrest can be accomplished is the secret we imparted to you 20 years ago,
and by means of which the important problem of the control of population
can be solved by you as it was long ago done by us.”
“Then you have the three sexes in the moon?”
“We have had them for many ages, in fact, we would not know how to exist
if we had but two.”
“It is a wonder to me how you ever could have fallen upon so wonderful an
arcanum—that nature seems to be carefully hiding from us.”
“Nature dropped the hint in this as in so many others of our discoveries.
There were occasional examples of the third sex produced by nature and
born into life, as there have been in the case of the human race as you
must know. These examples excited curiosity, which led to the discovery,
that they were due to arrested development. Further investigation and
experiment showed this arrest to be due to deprivation of a certain
class of food, or rather of food in a certain dynamic condition, that
is, under certain electric tensions. This condition again depends on
the molecular structure of the food elements. When the food is deprived
of the constituent plastidules[2] required for the nourishment and
development of the tissues composing the embryo organs of sex; these
tissues do not mature. And since the emasculation or invalidation of
the food does not extend to, or affect the process of assimilation
of the same nourishment by the other tissues, such as muscle, brain,
nerve, bone, etc., the individual is built up to a symmetrically sexless
maturity. And the development of sex is said to be arrested.
“If your people had been as wise as the bees they would have known how to
produce the third sex simply as the bees do by supplying the appropriate
sort of nutriment; for they, from the same sort of an egg, produce either
a queen, a drone or a worker, the latter being of the neuter or third
sex; simply by variations in the food and treatment.
“It is said, that it was by observing and following such hints as these
that our ancestors learned how to produce the same results the bees have
accomplished.”
While the Professor was making this explanation, the question arose in
my mind whether this discovery, surprising as it was, was sufficient to
rectify the ills that our race had encountered. Would there not be some
unforeseen drawback as there had proved to be to the other schemes, that
would neutralize the anticipated benefits, or work another disaster as
great as the one it was intended to cure. Was the third sex in itself
a desirable or happy kind of condition to have. The contemplation of
this subject, at first repulsive; when viewed philosophically becomes
exceedingly interesting as one of the curious flights of nature. It is
true that the specimens of these people she has furnished us on earth,
we have commonly regarded as unhappy monstrosities.—But that is no doubt
due to ignorance and prejudice, and to the anomalous conditions into
which they are born. I expressed myself somewhat in accordance with these
reflections, after which the Professor with some hesitation proceeded.
“In your day the family was spoken of as the basis and the bond of
society; and by the family was meant a father and mother and a brood of
children, all living together and working and caring for each other.
The family was the laboratory for the creation and preparation of the
citizens of the state. As an instrument for the education and development
of the young citizens it was discovered to be, in civil life, inefficient
and costly very unequal in its results and entailing an unequal and
unjust distribution of its burdens. The state gradually assumed one
after another of these former family duties and burdens in the rearing
and development of the young, and in doing so, gradually disintegrated
the family until there was nothing left of it except a pair of people,
a man and a woman. But in this the state only consummated a process
that had been begun generations before by the invention of labor saving
machinery. The family of your day was already a very much dwindled
affair, compared with that of ancient times. Then the members of the
family made for themselves their clothing and everything they required
and they constituted a military body of which the father was the chief.
But when machinery and gunpowder were invented, labor and employment,
in both peace and war, became specialized, and in the division of labor
that followed, families were gradually separated so as to use the labor
of their individual components to greater advantage and new combinations
were formed that crossed and obliterated family lines.
“When the families gave up their children to the state to be brought up,
it was a continuation of the same process in accordance with the eternal
law of economy, and because the machinery of the state for the care of
the young was so much better and cheaper than that of the family, that
the latter could no longer compete. When this was accomplished the family
had lost every function that had ever made it a necessary or important
subdivision of society.
“In former times the state of celibacy was regarded as censurable and
blameworthy, because the unmarried by failing to raise and provide for a
family of children were considered as shirking out of a duty they owed to
society. But when it was no longer the business of individuals to provide
for the growing citizens, it became a matter of total indifference to the
general public whether one was married or not. It became unimportant
to the public to know even of what sex any individual might be, and the
ancient laws that required the sex to be advertised by their clothes,
were repealed and everybody was allowed to dress according to the demands
of their business or their fancy. All artificial distinctions of sex such
as employment, civil rights and dress were abolished, and the personal
pronouns and titles of address that recognized sex were of necessity
dropped out of the languages. These things have already transpired in
your country and in all the more advanced countries of the world and
this has prepared the people to view the introduction of the third sex
with philosophical interest and appreciation, instead of vulgar and
unreasoning prejudice. You must make allowance for the advance people
have made since your day in education and the comprehensiveness of their
views. The third sex was looked upon in your day as a monstrosity,
because it was rare. Did they regard a seedless orange or lemon or grape
as a monstrosity? If you had ever seen a horse with three toes on each
foot you would have called him a monstrosity, but the time was as you
know, when the horse commonly had three toes and the monstrosity was the
animal with only one, such as you regarded in your day as a perfect model
of beauty and utility.
“Your race will not regard the third sex with aversion or depreciation
when they understand its relations and experience its value.”
“Please tell me,” said I, “what the relations of this sex to the others
will be. I suppose of course it will be subordinate to the others,
especially the male.”
“Well,” he replied, “your experience in this matter will closely follow
ours. As it is in Luna, so it is beginning to be on earth. You are
greatly mistaken in supposing our sex to be subordinate to another.”
At the expression “our sex,” I involuntarily gave the Professor a
surprised glance.
“Then your affiliations are with that sex?”
“I have indeed that honor.”
I was greatly astonished at this avowal and was greatly mortified to
reflect that I had unwittingly said things that must have hurt his
feelings, although he gave no sign of being in the least offended. I
began an embarrassed apology, but he silenced me by a deprecatory wave of
his right joker. He appeared amused rather than offended and evidently
excused my unlucky observations as due to the ignorance and inexperience
of the human race; which indeed, they were. I am now in doubt about the
propriety of these masculine personal pronouns that I have applied when
speaking of him but I shall continue to use them for I do not know what
sort to substitute for them; certainly none of less dignity would seem
appropriate to so dignified and noble a personage.
“In the moon,” the Professor went on, “there is perfect equality
between all individuals, regardless of the sex. But the third sex is
numerically far the largest and in case of disagreement would easily
dominate the other two. But there is and has been from time immemorial
perfect harmony as between the sexes, their functions being of necessity
complemental and in no way antagonistic. The most responsible places
in the state, and the leadership in education, in religion, in public
works, engineering and architecture as well as almost all the common
occupations, such as manufacturing and storing goods, agriculture etc.,
are in the hands of the third sex. They are preeminently people of
affairs, and for most occupations are decidedly superior to the other
sexes, because they are less liable to be distracted from their chosen
occupations.
“The males and females generally marry and then their first duties are to
each other, otherwise they are employed like the third sex people.
“Married people are desired to conform to the policy of the State Bureau
of Population in regard to the distinctions required by it. Otherwise
they are under no restriction or obligation. The population is thus kept
uniform or increased or diminished in an almost exact and scientific
manner. As I have already informed you, all Lunarians are by nature
industrious and they take the keenest sort of pleasure in their work.
Nevertheless they also play and amuse themselves, and devote much time
to intellectual occupations. They have numerous societies and clubs, and
the third sex people in particular are organized into associations for
said purposes. So are the others also, but their club life is more or
less interrupted and broken up by their connubial relations and duties.
The third sex people are distinguished for their personal friendships
which are very close intimate and tender and of life long constancy.
These friendships founded on compatibility of character, similarity of
tastes and pursuits the subtile attractions of reciprocal intellectual
and spiritual qualities, we regard as finer, more elevated, more noble,
more exquisite and more absorbing than the unions formed on the basis of
sexual attractions, and they are notably more permanent.”
“Then,” said I, “you have no jealousies of the other sexes—no envy?”
“Why should we have when it is plain we are as happy—we think
happier—than they? We would not change places with them, any sooner
than you would with a fish, because it can dive into depths you cannot
penetrate, or a bird, because it can soar where you cannot. You know you
would lose by the exchange. In a society where there are no artificial
distinctions on account of sex it is not possible to find any one who
would willingly exchange with another. Why should not a non-marrying sex
be happy? Do you not remember that one of the great teachers of earth
declared that in the kingdom of heaven they neither marry nor are given
in marriage? Certainly the third sex is in a better condition to comply
with this celestial regulation than either of the others. The same great
teacher was apparently so impressed with the superior conditions for
happiness possessed by the third sex that he recommended to those of his
followers who were able to receive it, to attach themselves to that sex
by artificial means[3], and not a few of them have from time to time
attempted to do so. But there is a vast difference between the artificial
and the natural, the spurious and the genuine. Those who are of the third
sex by natural development, are formed symmetrically; the brain and the
mind depending on it, with its desires and aversions are formed in unison
and harmony with the other bodily parts and organs.
“The same causes that suppress the formation of the latter also prevent
the development of the corresponding pieces of brain and mind. There is
therefore no clash between mind and body, no mental instincts that the
body is physically disqualified from executing. The artificial imitation
on the other hand is a mutilate. His symmetry and balance are destroyed
because he retains a sexual brain and mind. He is out of harmony with
himself, necessarily unhappy, and often a wretch.
“Intellectually the third sex is superior to the others. It is less
emotional, more cool, dispassionate, patient and rational. It is more
gentle and sympathetic, yet more firm in its conclusions and persistent
in its purposes. In size it is between the other sexes the male being the
largest—as with you—and from the same cause, polygamy, which as in your
case, was practiced by our ancestors. But our sex is physically finer,
stronger, more wiry and tough, more skillful in all the arts of life and
twenty-five per cent longer lived than the others. In short we possess
all the good qualities of the others in an increased degree, as if the
material that nature saved by the suppression of sexual qualities, she
used for the purpose of re-inforcing and augmenting the remaining ones.
“You are I think now enabled to judge what your third sex is like, that
is just now being introduced as an active factor in human affairs. Your
race is now for the first time in its history, able in a perfectly
scientific manner, to defend itself against its own encroachments. Your
long looked for millennium dates from this very moment—the practical
introduction of this new factor. The disorders of the past half century
that seemed to many to mark the beginning of a chaotic anarchy in reality
mark its termination. From this time forward, law and liberty will
gradually grow together until, at a period long before the end of this
millennium, they will precisely coincide. Things will not be perfect at
first. Men will learn better every day how to live and every day will
subjugate more and more of the energies and materials of nature to their
own ends. The millennium that begins now will be succeeded by ninety-nine
more before your race will have passed its high tide and begun its final
ebb.”