oman; or as if, on the other hand, the fact that a man proves
impotent when he attempts intercourse with a prostitute whose embraces
are repulsive to him, were in any sense whatever a proof that the same
man will fail to effect intercourse with the woman he loves. Thus, many
full-grown men are in need of enlightenment about this matter of sexual
potency, and especially need information regarding the extent of the
individual variations in this matter. We hear of young men who believe
themselves to be ill, simply because they are not sexually potent to a
degree that enables them to effect complete sexual intercourse several
times in brief succession. Their error often depends upon the fact that
they have been told by other young men that normal sexual potency
enables a man to have repeated intercourse at intervals of a few
minutes. As regards the informants, it may be that, having had such
exceptional potency on one or two occasions, they really believe it to
be a normal requisite of full manhood; more often, however, the mistake
originates from a young man taking at its face value the boasting of one
of his comrades who has lied freely about his own "virile potency." I
have known similar things happen in the case of women, among whom
boasting about the intensity of the voluptuous sensations experienced
during sexual intercourse is by no means uncommon. There are a great
many women in whom voluptuous sensations during intercourse are entirely
lacking, and in whom even sexual desire may be in abeyance. Sometimes
this is a matter of no great importance. But wives whose women-friends
have boasted to such an extent of the intensity of the voluptuous
sensations experienced in sexual intercourse, are apt to overestimate
the importance of the lack of such voluptuous pleasure in their own
experience of the sexual act; and it is therefore desirable that women
should know the true facts of the case. We have further to remember that
many of the disillusionments of marriage depend upon the fact that
before marriage girls have allowed their imaginations to run riot
concerning the intensity of enjoyment they will experience in sexual
intercourse; all the greater is their disillusionment if they are among
those who fail, after all, to experience sexual pleasure to the full.

In conclusion, I may refer to another instance of the way in which the
importance of the sexual enlightenment is apt to be over-estimated,
namely, as regards the eff