experience. Most of it was better forgotten. It didn't convince. It had
never worked things out. In this matter just as in every other matter
that really signified things had still to be worked out. Nothing had
been worked out hitherto. The wisdom of the ages was a Cant. People had
been too busy quarrelling, fighting and running away. There wasn't
any digested experience of the ages at all. Only the mis-remembered
hankey-pankey of the Dead Old Man.

"Is this love-making a physical necessity for most men and women or
isn't it?" Prothero demanded. "There's a simple question enough, and is
there anything whatever in your confounded wisdom of the ages to tell
me yes or no? Can an ordinary celibate be as healthy and vigorous as a
mated man? Is a spinster of thirty-eight a healthy human being? Can she
be? I don't believe so. Then why in thunder do we let her be? Here am I
at a centre of learning and wisdom and I don't believe so; and there is
nothing in all our colleges, libraries and roomsfull of wiseacres here,
to settle that plain question for me, plainly and finally. My life is a
grubby torment of cravings because it isn't settled. If sexual activity
IS a part of the balance of life, if it IS a necessity, well let's set
about making it accessible and harmless and have done with it. Swedish
exercises. That sort of thing. If it isn't, if it can be reduced and
done without, then let us set about teaching people HOW to control
themselves and reduce and get rid of this vehement passion. But all this
muffled mystery, this pompous sneak's way we take with it!"

"But, Billy! How can one settle these things? It's a matter of
idiosyncrasy. What is true for one man isn't true for another. There's
infinite difference of temperaments!"

"Then why haven't we a classification of temperaments and a moral code
for each sort? Why am I ruled by the way of life that is convenient for
Rigdon the vegetarian and fits Bowler the saint like a glove? It isn't
convenient for me. It fits me like a hair-shirt. Of course there
are temperaments, but why can't we formulate them and exercise the
elementary charity of recognizing that one man's health in these matters
is another man's death? Some want love and gratification and some don't.
There are people who want children and people who don't want to be
bothered by children but who are full of vivid desires. There are
people whose only happiness is chastity, and women who would rather
be courtesans th