The purpose of the sexual faculty and its lawful use

THE means devised by God for the preservation and increase of the human race is the union of the sexes. This union has for its primary object the procreation of children, who require for their proper education the long and assiduous care of both father and mother. Nature, then, as well as the law of God and of the Church, requires that children should only be begotten of parents joined in lawful and indissoluble wedlock. As nature has taken care that the individual should take the food and drink necessary for his personal support by giving him the spur of appetite for nourishment and pleasure in taking it, so the same great Mother has taken care of the race by joining venereal pleasure to the act of procreating children. This venereal pleasure is lawful when indulged in between married people and according to the laws of marriage. In all other cases it is unlawful, and is forbidden by the Sixth and Ninth Commandments.

Venereal pleasure must be distinguished from sensual and from venereo-sensual pleasure. Venereal pleasure has its seat in the genital organs, and is caused by their motions, the irregular motions of the flesh. Sensual pleasure is other than venereal, and rises from indulgence of the senses, from the contemplation of a beautiful picture, from listening to sweet music, from touching the glossy and soft coat of a cat. This sensual pleasure is morally harmless in itself, but there is a certain kind of pleasure which is sensual in its origin but which is connected with, and ordinarily causes, venereal pleasure. It arises from such acts as voluptuous kissing, and is called by divines venereo-sensual, On account of its connection and tendency, venereo-sensual pleasure is evil, and ordinarily is more or less sinful, as we shall see in what follows.

Sins of impurity are consummated or non-consummated. Consummated sins go as far as complete venereal pleasure, which is had through intercourse or through pollution. They are consummated according to nature if the generation of offspring can follow from them; otherwise they are consummated against nature. Non-consummated sins are looks, touches, and immodest conversation, which do not reach complete venereal pleasure.

V. The Act Ordered to Generation, that is, intercourse, consists in this: the male member, made erect and rigid, penetrates the female vagina and pours seed or sperm into it. It is called active generation. Intercourse can take place lying down, standing, or even sitting; likewise, since the vagina is in the lowest part of the body, it can take place both from the posterior and from the anterior part of the woman. But the natural and ordinary position is that it take place lying down and from the anterior part; hence the woman lies beneath and on her back, with knees raised and spread, and the man lies upon her.

VI. Fertilization, or passive generation, takes place in this way. Male semen admitted into the vagina ascends to the inner parts of the uterus and to the ovaries, as though carefully seeking or awaiting the mature ovum. When the ovum is found by the semen, the spermatozoa surround it, attempt to penetrate its substance, and fertilize it once penetrated. The mature and fertilized ovum proceeds into the uterus and develops in it.¹

¹ A mature ovum which falls from the ovary, if it has not been fertilized, is expelled through the vagina on the occasion of the menses.

VII. Pregnancy is said to be the condition of a woman who bears a fetus in the uterus. Ordinarily it is prolonged for nine months or about 280 days. In the first three months pregnancy is recognized as probable from the suspension of the menses, from the swelling of the breasts, and from the greater development of the uterus. Afterwards it becomes certain from the movements of the fetus and the pulsations of its heart. Finally it becomes evident from the enlarged abdomen and the gait of the woman. During the time of pregnancy the opening of the uterus is closed, and a new conception does not take place.

VIII. Birth consists in the expulsion of the fetus, which expulsion indeed takes place through the vagina. Birth is accompanied by rather strong pains, and for several days, ten to fifteen, a flow of blood follows it. The time which follows birth is called the puerperal period or the time of purgation.

IX. Lactation. Around the fifth month of pregnancy the breasts of the woman increase in size and prepare for the production of milk. A few days after birth milk is secreted; this secretion can continue for eighteen to twenty-four months.

X. The Venereal Act is distinguished into complete and incomplete; to the latter belongs libidinous distillation.

1. The complete act consists: 1. among men, in the emission of semen, whether in intercourse or outside it; 2. among women, in extreme venereal commotion, that is, carried all the way to its end, so that full satisfaction is had. It is commonly accompanied by the pouring forth of fluids, both vulvo-vaginal fluids and those which flow from the glands situated in the neck of the uterus. These fluids commonly flow into the cavity of the uterus, and sometimes are even poured outside the body, namely from the vagina. Venereal commotion and the secretion of fluids are indeed useful, but are not necessary for generation.

2. The incomplete act consists: 1. among men, in motions and agitations of the genital organs preceding emission; 2. among women, in non-extreme venereal commotion.

3. Distillation in a man is the secretion of a certain fluid distinct from semen and produced by the glands of the urethra. It occurs drop by drop, and can be joined with venereal pleasure or lack it. In a wife, whether and what distillation properly is, insofar as it is distinguished from venereal commotion, I have not been able to discover.

XI. Venereal Pleasure. Pleasure is distinguished in two ways: venereal and sensible.

1. Venereal pleasure is said to be that which is annexed to the venereal act. It is twofold, complete and incomplete; the former is joined with the complete venereal act, the latter with the incomplete act.

2. Sensible pleasure is that which arises from the conformity of a sensible object with the respective sense; for example, from the touch of a soft thing, from the sight of a beautiful thing, from the taste of a sweet thing, and so forth. This pleasure has annexed to it some alteration of the body through the movement of blood or vital spirits around the breast or heart, but without commotion of the spirits serving generation (St. Alphonsus III, 415).

Sensible pleasure is distinguished into carnal sensible pleasure and purely sensible pleasure, according as it arises from an object of itself apt to excite venereal pleasure, for example from the kiss of a woman, or from another object (St. Alphonsus III, 415-416).

2. Sexual love can be employed in a fuller or a narrower signification. In the narrower signification, it is the same as sexual desire or venereal appetite; this usage is the more frequent one. Yet it pertains to human dignity that we here recall and affirm its adequate notion, by which it is distinguished from venereal appetite and, at least in part, transcends the senses.

Taken in its full force, therefore, sexual love designates the innate inclination which follows upon the division of the human race into the two sexes, and it embraces all the tendencies by which the one sex inclines toward the other. Among these tendencies, however, there are also found affections which are superior to the sensible order.

These propensities are confirmed and perfected by acts and habits. Yet because, being founded in man's organic and psychological constitution, they are present in us from birth and are not first acquired by acts, they can be ascribed to instinct, the term being employed in a metaphorical sense.

For by metaphorical usage, inclinations which proceed from no deliberation and are common to our species are called instinctive.

3. Properly speaking, instinct designates that mysterious principle of actions, often wonderful, which animals of the same species perform in a constant and uniform manner without previous experience or training. These acts, as St. Thomas says ¹, "are ordered to an end by natural inclination rather than by apprehension." With its utility in view, instinct is defined by R. P. Monaco ² as "a certain inclination implanted in souls by the very Author of nature, by which animals are more readily able to guard against evil and harmful things and to pursue those things which are good and useful."

¹ De anima, book 3, lecture 5.

² Praelectiones metaphysicae speciales, part II, no. 224.

What instinct truly is, however, is much disputed, and no adequate explanation has yet been found, as His Eminence Cardinal Mercier testifies ³. Already, commonly and deservedly, the biologists themselves reject a merely mechanical explanation, according to which Spencer offered this simple description of instinct: it is a complex reflex action ⁴.

³ La Psychologie, p. 251.

⁴ Principles of Psychology, I, § 194.

The Scholastic philosophers place instinct in the cognitive faculty, or in the sensible judging power which they call the estimative power. Moreover, Cardinal Mercier says that these sensible judgments are, as it were, synthetic a priori; and that they cohere with a natural faculty of associating certain images, different ones for different animal species ⁵.

⁵ Op. cit., p. 254.

St. Thomas himself admits that instinct exists in infants, for example, for sucking milk ⁶; whether it is also present in the adult human being is disputed ⁷.

⁶ In I Sent., 2, d. 20, q. 2, art. 2, ad 5.

⁷ Urraburu, Institutiones philosophicae, Psychologia, book 1, disputation 4, chapter 2, article 6, p. 887. On instinct, compare the works cited of His Eminence Mercier and Urraburu. Physiologists dispute whether it is expedient to retain the name itself. Compare Havelock Ellis in Moll, Handbuch der sexualen Wissenschaften, p. 173. He names as a defender of the term H. Piéron, Les problèmes actuels de l'instinct (Revue philosophique, October 1908); but as an opponent, G. Bohn, La naissance de l'intelligence (Paris, 1909), and, earlier, Causes actuelles et causes passées, in Revue scientifique, 1 February 1901, p. 354.

4. However this matter may stand, sexual love or appetite thus taken fully is not referred by us, as it is by not a few, to sexual congress alone, nor is it said to possess an order to that alone.

For provident God bestowed upon each sex various qualities proper to it which would produce mutual sympathy. Hence man and woman seek one another not only for propagating human life, but also for leading it better and more pleasantly, indeed for preparing for the future life by present perfection.

We therefore posit a threefold intrinsic end of the union of man and woman: individual, generic, and formally social.

The individual end consists in the mutual completion of man and woman by their combined gifts.

The generic end is in the propagation of the human race.

The formally social end appears in the domestic society which husband and wife establish by their union, especially for educating offspring, while at the same time giving an example to other social friendships and preparing the way for them. For conjugal society gives origin to a manifold community and covenant among human beings.

Accordingly, in Sacred Scripture itself, Eve is said to have been created for this general reason, that Adam might find a helper like himself ⁸; St. Thomas approves this statement made by the Philosopher: "Male and female are joined among human beings not only because of the necessity of generation, as in other animals, but also for domestic life, in which there are certain works of the man and of the woman, and in which the man is the head of the woman" ⁹; and in Roman law itself marriage is defined as "the union of a man and a woman, comprising an undivided manner of life" ¹⁰. Concerning this definition, commentators observe that the end of generation is not alleged even in express words.

⁸ Genesis 2:18.

⁹ Summa theol., I, q. 92, art. 2, ad 3.

¹⁰ Institutiones, I, 9, De patria potestate, § 1.

What of the fact that physiologists themselves, besides individual instincts, which procure the good of individuals, recognize both generic instincts, by which provision is made for the good of the human species, and social instincts, which induce the formation of communities? Nor do they themselves deny the mutual kinship by which some instincts assist and almost penetrate others ¹¹.

¹¹ Compare Féré, L'instinct sexuel, p. 5. Concerning sexual appetite itself he has the following: "The first effect of the sexual instinct is the act of conjunction; little by little it becomes more complex: (1) with instincts relating to sexual pursuit and attraction; then (2) with instincts relating to permanent union and the protection of the young."

5. Those who deny a spiritual soul to man labor to explain the love of benevolence which they are compelled to observe mingled with sexual appetite. Having recourse to the tenets of transformism, they think that this love was gradually brought forth from the sexual appetite of those animals from which we ourselves would derive our origin: that this more universal affection was generated from certain instincts which accompany that appetite in animals, by which, for example, the mother patiently nourishes and tends the offspring, while the father protects and guards it. The specific nobility of the human soul, that is, its spiritual nature, frees us from investigations of this kind.

6. There are also those who think that in almost every spontaneous movement and pursuit of human beings, not only of adults but even of adolescents, indeed even of infants, beginnings or signs of venereal appetite can be detected. Thus, in the games and fights in which adolescents delight, they perceive the beginning and, as it were, the preparation of the generative function.

The celebrated author of "Psycho-analysis" ¹², Professor Freud, assuredly also goes too far, although he excels in ingenuity and sagacity, when he maintains that all so-called "hysteria," and related nervous disturbances, are to be traced back to sexual impulses, even unconscious ones, and attributes to all infants an intense sexual life of which no trace remains in the memory ¹³.

¹² That is, of the method of investigation which explores the things hidden in the subconscious.

¹³ Compare Gemelli, pp. 9-17 of Non moechaberis, where several sources concerning this matter are indicated.

These men also seem to us insufficiently mindful of the proper dignity of human nature, which we wished to acknowledge by a broader notion of sexual love. For unlike beings deprived of reason, man does not exist wholly for the sake of the species; that is, he did not receive life merely in order that as an infant he might grow, as an adult generate, and, once the preservation of the race had been secured, himself perish. Rather, he is a person, existing for a personal end or his own good. Accordingly, even if that were true of other living creatures, which nevertheless we very much doubt, the pursuits and propensities of man cannot find their adequate explanation in the physiological process of generation. Their adequate explanation, I say; for there is no reason for us to be concerned here about a partial one.

Thus far concerning the broader signification of sexual appetite. Before we speak of the narrower one, it seems proper to recall these few things concerning the sexual parts of man.

7. The male organs which serve generation are:

1. The two testes or testicles, in which nemaspermata or zoospermata (spermatozoa) are produced. Zoospermata appear to consist, as it were, of a head and a tail and to move themselves after the manner of animals. They are thought, however, not to be animals but merely cells.

These testes are contained in the infant's scrotum from birth. Before birth, they are hidden in the abdomen. It sometimes happens that one or both have not descended into the scrotum; they then remain very small in the abdomen or inguinal canal, and there is what is called ectopia of the testes.

The fluid proceeding from the testes consists by far for the greatest part, or almost wholly, of these nemaspermata, to which a very small quantity of liquid is added. But that which physicians call sperma, or male semen, contains, besides these nemaspermata, fluids distilled or secreted through other glands, so that a mixed liquid is obtained which can flow and be ejaculated ¹⁴. Hence sperma strictly so called can be defined as the liquid in which nemaspermata swim. When the nemaspermata are absent, what remains is sperma, or male semen, in the broader sense.

¹⁴ Compare Antonelli, Medicina pastoralis, I, p. 187.

Moreover, not only the nemaspermata destined for external ejaculation are produced in these testes; these glands are at the same time sources of an internal distillation or secretion, which is mingled with the blood and to which are attributed the signs of virility (beard, pubic hair, masculine voice) and the power of nourishing sexual appetite.

The external secretion of the testes is then carried through several (10-15) small canals, which are called efferent canals or cones, to the epididymis, where they terminate.

The epididymis is a canal folded back upon itself many times, so that beneath the exterior skin it appears to be, as it were, an inner coat of the testes. Along this path the same external secretion is conducted to each vas deferens, or deferent canal.

2. The two deferent canals, or vasa deferentia, which take their beginning from the testes and run through the abdomen and the prostate into the urethra, with which they unite as ejaculatory canals.

3. The two seminal vesicles, which, being situated between the rectum and the urinary bladder, were formerly thought to be receptacles for the nemaspermata, so that the semen emitted from them was said to flow immediately forth ¹⁵. From this their very name was taken. And it was thought that, by the nemaspermata preserved there, one could explain how, after the testicles had been removed, the faculty of generating could remain for some time. Today, however, they are considered rather as the organ of a certain secretion ¹⁶. This secretion, together with the secretion from the end of the vas deferens, from the prostate, and perhaps from the glands of Littré and Cowper, accompanies the flow from the testes.

¹⁵ They are still so described by Dr. Antonelli, Medicina pastoralis, I, p. 142, no. 190, and by Dr. R. P. Gemelli in the work Non moechaberis.

¹⁶ "The seminal vesicles do not, as was formerly assumed, constitute a reservoir for preserving the semen." Compare Zuntz and Loewy, Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen, 1906 (p. 721).

This does not prevent nemaspermata from often being found in the said vesicles. Whether they are dead or living is uncertain. Many living ones, however, are found in the epididymis, so that they can be extracted from the epididymis for artificial fertilization.

4. The prostate, which is a gland hidden in the abdomen beneath the urinary bladder and the seminal vesicles, through which the ejaculatory ducts and the urethra pass.

5. The two glands of Cowper, which, situated beneath the prostate, also discharge into the urethra.

6. The urethra, or urethral canal, which is the lower part of the male member and emits both semen and urine.

7. The male member (penis, rod, virile organ, male organ), which is constituted of two joined cavernous bodies, beneath which is the urethra. When it is filled with blood, it becomes erect.

The extremity of the member is occupied by the highly excitable glans, which is covered by the prepuce (which adheres to the glans very little). Under the prepuce, at the root or corona of the glans, there is collected from the sebaceous glands and from cells continually shed from the epithelium of the glans what is called preputial smegma, which among many persons must sometimes be removed, lest it become foul-smelling or even impel toward masturbation.

8. The female organs of generation are:

1. The vulva, by which name are understood the exterior parts of the female genitals: the large labia (large lips), which are two folds of exterior skin; the small labia or nymphs, that is, two smaller folds situated between the large labia, where smegma of the same nature as preputial smegma is produced and must frequently be removed; the clitoris, or very small penis without a urethra, which is the instrument of pleasure and becomes pleasurably erect; and the urinary meatus, or opening through which urine is emitted.

2. The vagina, which is the organ of copulation in the female and is destined to receive the male member. It has a cylindrical form and consists of three coverings, by which it is always closed. In virgins its opening is regularly covered by a membrane which is usually fashioned like a half-moon, so that it does not cover the whole opening.

In the vagina are glands named after Bartholin, which, during very intense arousal, emit a fluid almost as men do in seminal emission. When the vagina is suffused with this fluid, it is better suited for copulation, and by it the pleasure of contact is also increased.

Usefulness. A sufficiently distinct knowledge of bodily constitution and function is required, so that several moral solutions can be given and understood in their foundation.

I. Fecundation. , by which provision is made for the human race by multiplication, requires that some zoosperm or nemasperm (spermatozoid) should have penetrated the feminine ovule. This penetration occurs in the ovary or in the oviducts, that is, the uterine tube.

2. To this fecundation the genital apparatus of each sex is adapted:

a) The male organs are the twin testes or testicles, which before birth are hidden in the abdomen, but from the birth of the infant are contained in the scrotum, and in which the zoosperms are elaborated. These glands are at the same time sources of an internal secretion which is mixed with the blood, and to which are attributed the signs of virility (beard, hairs in the pubic region, masculine voice) and the force of nourishing, through the so-called "hormones," the sexual appetite. - There are besides two deferent canals (vasa deferentia), very slender, which from the testes through the abdomen and prostate flow together into the urethra as ejaculatory canals. But the secretion of the testes is led to them through the epididymis, or a canal often folded back on itself, so that, under the exterior skin, it seems to be, as it were, an interior tunic of the testes. Moreover several little canals (10-15) first bring the same secretion to the epididymis itself. They are called afferent canals or cones. - Then, there are two seminal vesicles, which, placed between the rectum and the urinary bladder, are so called because formerly they were thought to be receptacles of the nemasperms, whereas now they are considered rather as the organ of a certain secretion. This secretion, together with secretion from the end of the deferent vessel, from the prostate, and perhaps from the glands of Littré and Cowper, accompanies the flow from the testes. - Then there is the prostate, which is a gland hidden in the abdomen under the urinary bladder and the seminal vesicles, through which the ejaculatory ducts and the urethra pass. - Then the two glands of Cowper, which, situated under the prostate, also flow into the urethra.

Then there is the urethra, or urethral canal, which is the lower part of the male member and emits both sperm and urine. - Finally, there is the male member (penis, little rod, mentula, veretrum), which is constituted by two joined cavernous bodies, under which the urethra is. It is erected when it is filled with blood. The glans, very excitable, holds the extreme part of the member and is covered by the prepuce, a membrane which by no means adheres to the glans.

Under the prepuce, at the root or crown of the glans, the so-called smegma of the prepuce is gathered, which among many, when the prepuce has been drawn back, must sometimes be removed, lest it become foul-smelling or even impel to masturbation.

b) The female organs of generation are: the vulva, under which name come the exterior parts of the woman's genitals, i.e.: the large lips, which are two folds of the exterior skin, these alone being seen externally; the small lips, or nymphae, i.e. two smaller folds, situated between the large lips, where smegma of the same nature as the smegma of the prepuce, frequently needing removal, is produced; the clitoris, or very small penis without a urethra, which is an instrument of pleasure and is delightfully erected.

Then there is the vagina, of cylindrical form, always closed by the three coverings of which it consists. Its opening¹, among virgins, is regularly covered by a membrane, called the hymen, which is wont to imitate the figure of a half-moon, so also that it does not cover the whole opening. In the vagina there are glands named after Bartholin, which, in very vehement heat, emit a fluid rather similar to the fluid emitted by the man in seminal emission: this emission is feminine pollution, and was formerly thought to be the woman's semination. - Then there is the uterus or womb, which, rather similar to a small flask, is, by its lower part, which is called the neck, inserted as it were into the vagina¹, while the upper part, or body of the uterus, has a triangular form. In the middle of the neck, the interior part of which is called the tench's snout (museau de tanche), there is a small mouth by which the uterus communicates with the vagina. But the interior surface of the vagina and of the uterus is wrinkled. - Then there are the fallopian tubes or oviducts: they are two canals, nearly 10-12 centimeters long, which communicate with the uterus through the so-called uterine opening. - The ovaries, or two glands, to the right and to the left of the uterus, by which eggs are produced.

The oviducts are not constantly applied to the ovaries. But they end in a certain kind of shell or end of the tube (pavillon de la trompe), which, at the time when the mature ovules fall from the ovaries from the so-called vesicles of Graaf, is adapted to the ovaries so that it may receive the ovules which are afterward led through the tube toward the uterus. This time recurs nearly every month. When no fecundation has occurred, the ovules are emitted through the vagina together with blood dripping drop by drop: this is called the menstrual flow. It ceases during pregnancy. - Finally, the breasts or paps are destined for producing and giving milk.

¹ The opening of the vagina is placed between the urinary meatus, or the mouth which, placed under the clitoris, is destined for emitting urine, and the anus.

¹ By that insertion there are effected, on the right and left of the neck, in the vagina itself, two bends or recesses where part of the sperm can lie hidden before it penetrates the uterus.

Virginity. , or the viridity of intact flesh, i.e. of flesh immune from libidinous contact, is demonstrated by no physical indication in the male, while, in the female sex, physical virginity designates that apparent integrity of the body which consists in the preserved seal or enclosure of virginity.

Most persons, especially the more ancient, place the virginal enclosure in the hymen; nevertheless the hymen can be absent from birth; it is broken for various other causes; nor is it always torn in the first acts of copulation. Therefore others place this enclosure in a certain contraction and compression by which the parts of the opening of the vagina are constricted, until they have been dilated by carnal copulation. But neither from this side is an altogether certain sign had.

Male seed. , or sperm, contains, besides the nemasperms, fluids distilled or secreted through the other glands, so that there is obtained a liquid mixture which can flow and be ejaculated. This is complete sperm, or sperm strictly so called, in which the zoosperms swim. Besides these zoosperms, the testes contribute almost nothing to that fluid. If zoosperms are lacking, there remains, on account of the other fluids, sperm or male seed more broadly so called.

The female seed is seen to be constituted by ovules.

Intervention of the threefold life. The production and emission of sperm, the spontaneous production and falling of ovules, and the very conjunction of each element, or fecundation, are, according to themselves, functions of the vegetative life, like the chewing and assimilation of food: they occur in plants. But provident God joined sensations and delight to a function so useful and so necessary for preserving the species, by which the sensitive life, or inferior psychic life, intervenes. Then these sensible affections are perceived by higher cognition and are ruled, at least in part, by rational appetite, so that the higher psychic life with imputable action is by no means excluded. Hence venereal delight, venereal appetite, sexual instinct.

1. Venereal delight. can be described as the proper delight of an operation generative in itself, so that it is felt fully or perfectly in the operation itself, but incompletely in its beginnings. But that operation is copulation. This denotes penetration of the erect male member, with effusion of seed, at least broadly so called, into the vagina of the female, who herself is accustomed to have her own motions attracting the seed and to experience a delightful heat.

In each effusion, nemasperms are contained in an immense number, which they estimate at 250,000,000 to 200,000,000. If the man has perfectly penetrated the vagina, already in the very act of copulation many nemasperms enter the uterus. But such is their motion that they traverse the hundredth part of a meter within ten moments (minutes). Moreover the beginning of the vagina is distant from the opening of the uterus by 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 centimeters; but by 10 to 15 centimeters from the fallopian tubes, where, if they meet the female ovule, which descends by a slow motion, fecundation is wont to occur, unless it occurs in the ovaries themselves. Therefore, when all things proceed in the best way, fecundation already takes place after an hour and a half from the completed copulation.

2. Both complete and incomplete venereal delight is described materially as a delightful change of the organs proximately serving generation.

For rightly understanding this description, one must beware: a) lest you think that the organs of generation are, simultaneously and in all their extension, the seat of venereal pleasure. This seat, in the man, is the male member, especially the glans by which it is terminated; in the woman it is the clitoris, the vagina up to the uterus, and to some extent the nipples of the breasts. Wherefore they think the woman's venereal delight is greater than that of the man; b) lest you confuse the seat of pleasure with the place whence excitation can proceed. Thus, from the exciting place, they distinguish in the woman papillary, uterine, and clitoral pollution; and even in the man touches exercised on parts neighboring the sexual organs, which have a nervous affinity, can excite venery. And in more distant parts secondary centers are observed, for example the lips, where a touch of the surface can induce or increase venereal stirring. Nor is contact needed. Through the other senses also, whether immediately, or especially through the mediation of phantasy, which alone suffices, man is excited; c) lest you think that delight is so proper to those organs that you exclude or deny the participation of other parts, while not a few moderns contend that sensations are perfected in the brain itself; d) lest there be too much attention to this, that that very change of the organs itself be perceived as delightful. Let one who, from a phantastic representation, obtains at the same time both a change of the sexual parts and a delight distinct from the purely sensible, not doubt that he experiences venereal delight.

3. But the more accurate or formal definition of venereal delight is: a psychic state brought on by venereal sensation and a joined affection.

But venereal sensations are: a) an external sensation, so called from an exterior object or cause, when by the contact itself in the glans, etc., the proper titillation of the sexual organ is excited; b) kinesthetic sensations, by which the situation or motion of the sexual organs is perceived, when they arise from a strictly venereal impulse, for example from an obscene phantasm, or are directed to a strictly venereal act, copulation or emission of seed; c) organic sensations brought on by the blood with which the cavernous bodies of the penis and clitoris are filled, especially those which are joined with the emission of seed at least broadly so called.

Moreover those sensations induce an affection (impression, sentiment) of pleasantness (de bien-être), either pure, as in the complete act, or mixed with some less pleasant tension, as in an incomplete or not yet perfect act.

— In what manner the delight of the sensitive order is special it is useful to indicate more accurately. Now indeed it is special insofar as it is taken as incorporated in the sensation, and effects something one with it. But if the enjoyment of the subject is taken according to itself, the more probable opinion today holds that various sensible enjoyments (jouissances) taken as if separated from the cause do indeed vary in intensity and in unequal participation of body and soul, but are reduced to one common satisfaction generically or specifically, so that the moral specification must be derived from the cause.

In joy, or higher delight, the object not merely brings satisfaction, but, being reflexively known, estimated, and loved, enters the delight itself and changes it, so that this separation cannot be had, and joys are truly specifically diverse.

Venereal appetite. The affection of pleasantness brings about prosecutive tendencies which compose appetite. Therefore the inferior venereal appetite, spontaneously, as satiative, embraces the complete act; if it is not complete or is altogether lacking, it is spontaneously borne through sexual instinct to completing the same or to procuring it by apt actions.

When reason intervenes and complies, there is then added a formal pursuit of rest in the possessed good, or of preserving the pleasantness and increasing it artificially.

This appetite can be sound or regular, which, both in force or intensity, and in the mode in which it is excited, and in the object to which it is borne, is adapted to human nature; and it can be infected by various vices, i.e.: a) considered in its force or intensity, it can labor under anesthesia or hypesthesia, when it is none or too weak; or, on the contrary, it can rage too much through hyperesthesia, which in the man is called satyriasis, in the woman nymphomania; b) considered in its object or term, it can be borne either toward one's own body, or toward the same sex, or toward another genus, in animals; c) considered in the mode of excitation, it can be excited by things which commonly do not excite others, for example by sight or touch of an animal or of a material object, or not be excited in circumstances which commonly would be the cause of grave heat. The vices sketched under b) and c) are called by the common name, besides their proper names, paresthesias.

Sexual instinct. strictly so called is an innate propensity toward sexual acts which procure venereal delight.

Observe, therefore, that it does not incline toward generation as such, but toward copulation, which of itself denotes an order toward generation.

But in man there must also be considered sexual instinct broadly so called, which seeks the very person of the other sex on account of secondary sexual characters¹, i.e. on account of psychic and somatic qualities which render the intercourse of one sex with the other sex pleasant or agreeable. But since at the same time the whole body is present close by, this pursuit of the person remotely disposes to venereal delight. The passage from spiritual appetite to carnal appetite is rendered more difficult or easier according to the nature of the affection and of the qualities attracting.

For the affection can be one of piety, as between father and daughter, mother and son, between brothers and sisters; and then the very reverence which enters that affection is wont to restrain carnal appetite. It can be simple friendship, founded on intellectual, moral, supernatural endowments; and this, placid, tranquil, without envy, seeks bodily demonstrations of kisses and embraces less even than piety. It can be love, or an affection similar to that which is wont to join both spouses. This affection between strangers is of suspect honesty, contains a certain mutual handing over which, since it lacks a useful end, gives place to scruples; it is wont to be fostered between two only, with others jealously excluded; and it impels to frequent significations of affection, which are wont to render the mind unquiet. Founded more on typical bodily qualities, it frequently induces physiological changes in the genital organs themselves, so that a carnal appetite is mixed with the more noble one.

¹ Primary characters result from the genital apparatus itself.

Sensible delight, merely sensible. Carefully to be distinguished from venereal delight, just described, is sensible delight, whether that special delight of the exterior senses, for example the touch of a soft thing, which can also be obtained in the sexual organs, or the less defined delight which is brought by an affection depending on sexual instinct broadly so called. And when the passage to carnal commotion is easy, that delight is called sensible-carnal, and those who indulge it are said especially to favor sensuality.

Merely sensible is the delight of sight, hearing, and touch without relation to the sexual appetite.

It also happens, because love properly spiritual and carnal love are helped by a similar and allied bodily disposition and affection, i.e. by a similar coenesthesia¹, that, on account of the physiological law of association, a man, especially a male, while he fosters a spiritual, indeed a religious affection, unwillingly suffers certain motions of the flesh. According to that law of association, two affections which have a similar repercussion in the body can be excited by that very repercussion, just as also one repercussion can induce the other.

¹ Do not confuse kinesthetic sensations, by which the situation and motion of the organs are perceived, with coenesthetic sensations, or sensations common to several operations.

Extension of the sexual appetite in man. It is also proper to man that even in another person of the same sex, indeed in his own person, he finds sources of satisfaction either broadly or strictly sexual. Whence, even without any perversion or inversion of appetite, he can yield to sexual instinct broadly or strictly so called in his intercourse with persons of the same sex or alone, and can will to procure for himself sensible-carnal or strictly carnal delight. Think of the dangerous friendships of adolescents of the same sex in boarding schools, which, by the aforesaid marks of love, are distinguished from friendship properly so called.

Venereal instinct. impels to various contacts which, by new stimuli, increase carnal excitation. Nor does what is called the appetite for "contacts" have any other signification than a carnal one among brute animals. In man, on the contrary, kisses and embraces can also be commanded by a noble affection, for example of piety or friendship, or by a dangerous affection, not yet, however, carnal.

These things must be accurately distinguished, observing especially whether the propensity is moderate, quiet, content with the accustomed signs of affection, or, on the contrary, tends toward excessive and unusual demonstrations: this avidity introduces suspicion of a carnal affection.

Carnal motions or acts. which are strictly sexual now seem to have been sufficiently declared. They are in every use of venereal things as such, or in any "actuation" of the genital apparatus, which from the end of the work is destined to procreating offspring.

Therefore, besides the complete use of natural or unnatural copulation and of pollution, there are, in the man, a pleasurable, not every nervous, erection of the member and agitation of the member; in the woman, a delightful erection of the clitoris and contraction of the vagina.

Force of phantasy. By the phantasms themselves sensations can be represented and similar effects brought about as by exterior sensations.

For in the brain itself there is a center of excitation; another is had in the spinal cord; a third, in a certain part of the genital apparatus.

1. Fecundation, which is wont to occur in the ovary or oviduct, requires that some zoosperm should have penetrated the feminine ovule.

2. Zoosperms are elaborated in the testicles, which at the same time are sources of an internal secretion by which, through the so-called hormones, the sexual appetite itself is nourished; while the feminine ovule, nearly every month, from puberty to the age of about 50 years, which thence is called menopause, spontaneously falls with a flow of blood, menstruation. Complete male sperm contains besides fluids secreted through other glands, in which the zoosperms swim.

3. To the function generative in itself, or copulation, God has joined the proper delight which is called venereal, and which is materially described: the delightful change of the organs proximately serving generation; but formally it can be defined: a psychic state brought on by venereal sensation and a joined affection. It can be complete or incomplete: the latter tends toward the complete.

4. Venereal appetite denotes concupiscence of that delight; and it can be sound or regular, such as commonly is had, or labor under the vice of anesthesia or hypesthesia, hyperesthesia, and paresthesia. It can exist without or with the participation of reason.

5. Appetite is fostered by sexual instinct, which, strictly taken, is an innate propensity toward sexual acts which induce venereal delight; but, taken more broadly, it seeks the person of the other sex on account of secondary sexual characters.

6. Sensible delight is contained in every enjoyment of the sense. Merely sensible delight excludes venereal delight; sensible-carnal delight is a less defined bodily satisfaction which easily passes to carnal commotion. The voluntary pursuit of sensible delight, if it is either excessive or is borne toward the sensible-carnal, which, in unmarried persons, can always be called excessive, is called sensuality.

7. A carnal motion, or a strictly sexual act, is had in any actuation of the genital apparatus which, from the end of the work, is destined for generating offspring.

Therefore there is, besides the complete use of the faculty, in the man an erection pleasurable in itself and agitation of the member; in the woman, a delightful erection of the clitoris and contraction of the vagina.

A threefold center of venereal excitation is had finally: the brain, the spinal cord, and part of the genital apparatus.

8. Bodily integrity in the female alone is regularly demonstrated by a visible indication, i.e. either by an intact hymen or by a complication of the parts.

X. They object: 1. Anyone can licitly use, as he pleases, that which is his own. But in lust, adultery excepted, man uses nothing except what is his own, namely, his own body. Therefore.

Reply. Man does not have dominion over his own body, which he did not give to himself, but which was granted to him by God; he has only useful dominion or use, however, according to divine ordination. Hence, "from the fact that someone uses his body inordinately through lust, he does injury to God, who is the principal lord of our body" - II-II, q. 153, art. 3, ad 2. Namely, he usurps the dominion of God.

2. What nature does cannot be evil. But nature expels semen and effects pollution.

Reply. Distinguish: insofar as it is done by nature, conceded; insofar as it is done voluntarily by man, denied. Otherwise it could also be said: nature inflicts death; therefore it is licit voluntarily to inflict death on oneself or on others!

3. Natural tendencies and pleasures are good or ordered.

Reply A. Natural tendencies and pleasures are good or ordered - distinguish: pleasures of integral nature, conceded; of fallen or pure nature, denied, or subdistinguish: of nature considered completely, or of nature as rational, to which the lower tendencies must be subjected, conceded; of nature as animal, denied. Rational nature does not tend toward venereal pleasures except in order to the propagation of the human race in marriage.

Or B. Natural pleasures of themselves are not morally good or evil, except insofar as they are chosen conformably to right reason or not conformably to it.

4. The pleasures of foods are licit; therefore also those of venereal things.

Reply. Pleasures are licit if the operations to which they are joined are licit and are done rightly for a good end; hence the pleasures of foods are not licit unless they are sought in operations which, according to the order of reason, tend to preserving the life of the individual; and carnal pleasures are not licit except in order to preserving the human species in legitimate marriage.