The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1916-06-27
sen.
~ DR.. FRANK CRANE
Copyright. 1916. by Frank Crane)

There is nothing essentially impure
about the sex feeling. There is nothing
necessarily wrong or inconsistent with
the finer things of life, even high de-
velopment of spirituality.
On the contrary, the most beautiful,
the most refining, the most conserving
and wholesome elements of mans or
woman's experience are due directly and
indirectly to this natural instinct.
That so much trouble and evil come
to people through the sex drive is due to
the fact that it is that emotion which
most influences character.
1t seems to be the law for human
creatures that every privilege is attend
ed by its danger, and the higher the
one the lower the depths of possibility
in the other.
Peril is the twin sister of potency. The
loftier the peak the more fearful the
fall
Hence it is that of all perverts the
sex pervert is the most incurable, the
most wretched in his own penalty, and
the most septic toward society.
The one baneful delusion that obsesses
most minds is that, the perils of sex be-
ing so dreadful. the best safety is in ig-
norance. But ignorance is a poor sub
stitute for virtue. In fact, the founda-
ton of all virtue is intelligence, if it is to
stand one in good stead in time of trial.
Every boy and girl therefore, has a
right to be fully informed as to the
meaning of the universal instincts with
in them, of the results of the sum of
human experience in dealing with them,
of their physiology and psychology, and
particularly of their relation to the
social and spiritual life.
Not to equip a young person with this
information is TO do him or her griev-
Gus wrong. II is TO send them out as
sheep among wolves.
Properly understood and duly subju-
gated TO the law of temperance, supreme
in heaven and earth. the sex feeling does
more, perhaps. To minister TO the pleas
urableness Of human existence than any
other emotion.
II is the core of romance, the glow that
makes adolescence radiant, the open
secret Of all lovers, the basis of the ten
der joys of family life, ushering in the
children with all their delightful and dis
ciplning influence; and when with the
years il passes il need leave no bitter
ashes of shame behind, but may be part
of those recollections of hallowed intima-
cies that are warmly human and in no
way british.
When shall We get over the long error
of mediavalism, that call desire of the
flesh hath in it somewhat of evil? Who
taught the creed makers that, anyhow?
For surely the voice from heaven to
the apostle Peter has significance:
What God hath cleansed, call thou not
common"
And the old anchorite in the Sinaitic
mountain, seeking eternal life by deny
ing and mutilating his humanity. con-
fessed his defeat when he wrote upon
the rock of his cave:
81 am a man, and nothing human is
alien to me-"
Says Olive Schreiner: always in our
dreams we picture the love of the sexes
as once dull. slow, creeping worm; then
a torpid. earthly chrysalis at last the
full-winged insect, glorious in the SUM-
shine Of the future
Be holy, if you will, but be human.
Thus Edward Dowden.
know my purpose deep. and can refrain:
walk among the living. not the dead:
NV sight is purged love and pity men
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