But if recklessly indulged
in, they inevitably sap our interest in these other ideals. Except
where they spring from and reinforce true affection, they are an
opiate, taking us into a dream world that makes actual life stale
and tasteless. "Hold off from sensuality," says Cicero; "for if you
give yourself up to it, you will be unable to think of anything else."
There is so much else that is worthwhile, life has so many possible
values, that for our own final happiness, we cannot afford to let this
instinct usurp too great a place. The vision of God is worth many
hours of transient and shallow excitement; and that vision comes
only to the pure in heart.
(7) But even for the greatest pleasure in sex itself,
incontinence is a blunder. The one telling argument for free love is
the sweetness of the delights that the chaste must miss; the bodily
intimacy that soothes the lonely heart, the adventurous excitement
of breaking down barriers, of dominance and surrender, with its
quickened breathing and heightened sense of living. But the plea
comes usually from the inexperienced; it is the yearning of youth
toward the lure of the untried ways, of the untasted joys. Actually,
where passion is unbridled, the halo and the vision quickly vanish;
the sated impulse becomes a restless craving for more violent
stimulation, a thirst that no mere physical intimacy can ever assuage;
or it leaves the heart cloyed and despondent and resourceless.
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