Читать книгу The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization - Iwan 1872-1922 Bloch - Страница 13

“In the beginning all the senses of man had but a small area of action, and the lower senses were more active than the higher. We see this among savages of the present day: smell and taste are their guides, as they are in the case of the lower animals. But when man is raised above the earth and the undergrowth, smell is no longer in command, but the eye: it has a wider kingdom, and accustoms itself from early childhood to the finest geometry of lines and colours. The ear, deeply placed beneath the projecting skull, has closer access to the inner chamber for the collection of ideas, whilst in the lower animals the ear stands upright, and in many is so formed as to point in the direction of the sound.”

Smell, taste, and even touch, have but little æsthetic value as compared with the two higher senses, because in the former the material preponderates too greatly, and because they are more closely related with the pure animal impulses than are sight and hearing. Johannes Volkelt, in his valuable work “Æsthetics,” has carried on an interesting investigation of this question, and comes to the conclusion that in sight and hearing perception proceeds without any trace of the material; in touch and taste, on the other hand, the material enormously predominates, whilst smell stands between. Schiller wrote:

“In the case of the eye and the ear the surrounding matter is rejected by the senses; for this reason, these two senses give the freest æsthetic enjoyment unalloyed with animal lust.”

The sense of sight is a true æsthetic sense in relation to the vita sexualis; it is the first messenger of love. By means of this sense, colour and form become sexual stimuli: by the sense of sight the entire impression of the beloved personality is first conveyed; sympathy and sexual attraction are almost always at first dependent upon sight. In regard to love’s choice, sight is unquestionably the sense of the greatest importance.

According to researches guided by the light of the modern doctrine of evolution, we can no longer doubt that the beauty of the living world is intimately connected with the sexual life, and is indeed by this first called into being. All beauty is, to use the words of Darwin and P. J. Möbius, “love become capable of perception,” and, let us ourselves add, love become capable of perception by means of the sense of sight. The figure, the carriage, the gait, the clothing, the adornment, the observation of the beauties of the various parts of the body of the beloved person—all these impressions, received by means of the sense of sight, have the most powerful erotic influence.

Havelock Ellis also comes to the conclusion that for mankind the ideal of a suitable love-partner is based far more upon the data of the sense of sight than upon those of touch, smell, and hearing.

However, in addition to the sense of sight, the sense of hearing plays a part of considerable importance in the amatory life of mankind. A sufficient indication of this fact is given by the change occurring in a man’s voice at the time of puberty. Darwin’s classical investigations prove beyond a possibility of doubt the intimate relationship between the voice and sexual life. The masculine voice, especially, has a sexually stimulating effect upon woman; but the converse influence of a woman’s voice upon man may also be observed. In the other mammalia, it is especially in the rutting season that the voice is used as a means of sexual allurement. The repetition of this vocal lure at measured intervals gives rise to rhythm and song. The rhythmical repetition of the same tone possesses something highly suggestive, fascinating, and so gives rise to sexual attraction and charm in the most powerful manner. Here lies the origin of the profound erotic influence of singing and music. Darwin assumes that the early progenitors of mankind, before they had acquired the faculty of expressing their mutual love in articulate speech, used to charm one another by musical tones and rhythms. Woman is far more susceptible than man to the sexual influence of singing or music, but man himself is by no means indifferent to the charms of the beautiful feminine voice. The soft tones of a woman’s voice are, for many men, the first enthralling disclosure of woman’s nature. The French physician and natural philosopher Moreau relates that he was once compelled to renounce the pleasure of seeing the performance of a beautiful actress, for only thus could he overcome a violent outburst of sexual passion which was evoked in him by the mere stimulus of her voice.

[4] If at the present day an inquiry were instituted among the cultured women of European and Anglo-American descent, whether bearded or beardless men more nearly corresponded to their ideal of beauty, there can be little doubt that the majority—perhaps a very large majority—would declare against a full beard.

[5] Recently, apart from sexual periodicity, a general periodicity of vital manifestations, more especially of the psychical phenomena associated with sexuality, has been proved to exist in both sexes. In a work that attracted much attention—“The Course of Life: Elements of Exact Biology” (Vienna, 1905)—Wilhelm Fliess proved the occurrence in the human species of a twenty-three day “masculine,” and a twenty-eight day “feminine” period. Not merely do physical phenomena recur quite spontaneously at intervals of twenty-three and twenty-eight days respectively, but the same is true of perceptions, feelings, and voluntary impulses. Hermann Swoboda, a thoughtful supporter of Fliess’s theory, has treated this question in two works—“The Periods of the Human Organism in their Psychological and Biological Significance” (Leipzig and Vienna, 1904), and “Studies in the Elements of Psychology” (Leipzig and Vienna, 1905). In these he has described also twenty-three-hour and eighteen-hour vital undulations in human beings, and has discussed the significance of this periodicity to psychology. These researches of Fliess and Swoboda need to be confirmed by other investigators before they can be regarded as definite additions to our scientific knowledge. In this connexion also the older work of Carl Reinl—“Undulatory Movements of the Vital Processes in Woman” (Leipzig, 1884)—may be consulted. See also Van de Velde’s “Ovarian Functions, Undulatory Movement, and Menstrual Hæmorrhage” (Jena, 1905).

[6] Virey likewise explains the enduring nature of human love as dependent upon an excess of potent nutritive material, whereas the poor savages of Northern Europe and America, who must often go hungry, really experience no more than an instant of sexual pleasure, just like the wild animals, who rut only at certain distinct seasons. For the same reason, our domestic animals, which have a superfluous supply of nutriment, copulate far more frequently. And in our own case, the incessant intimate association of the sexes in our domestic life is a continued source of ever-renewed sexual needs, even contrary to our own will. The assumption of the upright posture by man, which is so intimately connected with the preponderance of the human brain, is also regarded by Virey as “an enduring cause of sexual excitement.” Cf. J. J. Virey, “Das Weib” (“Woman”), p. 301; Leipzig, 1827.

[7] Recently Gualino [“Il Riflesso Sessuale nell’ Eccitamento alle Labbra” (“The Sexual Reflex resulting from the Stimulation of the Lips”), published in the Italian “Archives of Psychiatry,” 1904, p. 341 et seq.] by mechanical stimulation of the red parts of the lips, has produced erotic ideas and congestion of the genital organs, and this proves that the lips are an erogenic zone. Compare also the interesting remarks of Professor Petermann and Dr. Näcke on the origin of the kiss, in the German “Archives of Criminal Anthropology,” 1904, vol. xvi., pp. 356, 357.

[8] A kiss is on the boundary-line between erotism and sexual enjoyment. Bölsche calls it the true transitional form between fusion-love and distance-love. At the instant of the kiss the distance between the two lovers is certainly reduced to a minimum; the distance-love, therefore, is on the point of becoming fusion-love. On the other hand, however, the kiss is still simply tactile contact, and contact of the heads only, the actual seat in mankind of the sentiment of distance-love. The kiss represents a yearning for complete fusion-love, and yet is at the same time a symbol of purely spiritual distance-love.

[9] Especially in France is this the case. Madame Adam describes very tastefully this feeling of loss of virtue after granting a kiss.

[10] Cf. also J. Librowicz, “The Kiss and Kissing,” p. 22 (Hamburg, 1877).

[11] It is interesting to observe that the Chinese regard the European kiss as a sign of cannibalism [d’Enjoy, “Le Baiser en Europe et en Chine” (“The Kiss in Europe and in China”), Bulletin de la Société d’Anthropologie, Paris, 1897, No. 2.]

[12] We can allude only in passing to the celebrated genito-labial nerve of Voltaire.