It is quite conceivable that within the near future the venereal
diseases will be rendered entirely curable by the progress of medicine.
It is possible that some certain and harmless method of preventing
conception will be found and become so universally known that the
danger of unintentional childbirth will become practically nonexistent.
Such a situation would remove the most obvious reasons for
chastity, and would insure a rapid growth of free-love sentiment. It
would be pointed out that free love would do away with the shameful
existence of the paid prostitutes, and that thus all four of the basic
reasons above given for chastity would no longer exist. To discuss
such possibilities may seem premature. But as a matter of fact, even
now every one who indulges in "free" love hopes to escape disease and
conception. And there is an increasing propaganda insisting on the
removal of the old conventions and the permission of promiscuous love.
The spirit of adventure is in the air; and with even a good chance
of escaping the penalties, there are many who will seize their
opportunities for enjoyment, preferring a present pleasure with its
spice of risk to a dull negation of desire. We must then go on with
the argument and point out that even where these terrible results are
escaped, the way of free love is not the happiest way.
(5) Freedom from restraint in inter-sex relations inevitably leads,
in the majority of men and women, to an overindulgence which seriously
impairs health and efficiency.
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