h the piquant double sense, in which, out of defective
naturalness and out of a prudery that has become morality, things that
may not be clearly uttered, are veiled, and are thereby rendered all the
more harmful; such a language incites but does not satisfy; it suggests
but does not speak out. Our social conversation, our novels and our
theatres are full of these piquant equivoques,--and their effect is
visible. This spiritualism, which is not the spiritualism of the
transcendental philosopher, but that of the _roue_, and that hides
itself behind the spiritualism of religion, has great power to-day.

The healthy sensualism of the Middle Ages found in Luther its classic
interpreter. We have here to do, not so much with the religious
reformer, as with Luther the man. On the human side, Luther's robust
primeval nature stepped forward unadulterated; it compelled him to
express his appetite for love and enjoyment forcibly and without
reserve. His position, as former Roman Catholic clergyman, had opened
his eyes. By personal practice, so to speak, had he learned the
unnaturalness of the life led by the monks and nuns. Hence the warmth
with which he warred against clerical and monastic celibacy. His words
hold good to this day, for all those who believe they may sin against
nature, and imagine they can reconcile with their conceptions of
morality and propriety, governmental and social institutions that
prevent millions from fulfilling their natural mission. Luther says:
"Woman, except as high and rare grace, can dispense with man as little
as she can with food, sleep, water and other natural wants. Conversely,
also, neither can man dispense with woman. The reason is this: It is as
deeply implanted in nature to beget children as to eat and drink.
Therefore did God furnish the body with members, veins, discharges and
all that is needed therefor. He who will resist this, and prevent its
going as Nature wills, what else does he but endeavor to resist Nature's
being Nature, that fire burn, water wet, that man eat, drink or sleep?"
And in his sermon on married life he says: "As little as it is in my
power that I be not a man, just so little is it in your power to be
without a man. For it is not a matter of free will or deliberation, but
a necessary, natural matter that all that is male must have a wife, and
what is female must have a husband." Luther did not speak in this
energetic manner in behalf of married life and the necessity o