rse of
time this symbolism becomes conventionalized, and eventually it finds
its way into primitive art. It then becomes the leading motive in
primitive art and finally the religious motive is forgotten and the
aesthetic motive alone remains. Were further proof necessary, these
analogies alone would be sufficient to enable us to understand the
meaning of sex worship.

The ritual associated with the worship of sex then, arose in response to
emotions which are grouped around the instinct of reproduction. These
feelings are so primitive and at the same time so fundamental, that it
is difficult for us to realize that early man should dignify them by
religious ritual. They stand out as expressions of a biological demand.
As stated above, sex worship was not a conscious expression on the part
of certain individuals, but it was the unconscious expression of
longings and desires on the part of the race. It represents a phase in
man's mental evolution, a process of mental development. Its dynamic
value, from a biological standpoint, is at once apparent. In order to
survive man must reproduce his kind, and the emotions associated with
reproductive instincts must be of adequate dynamic value.

* * * * *

It has been stated that sex worship, as practiced during the primitive
state of civilization, was a healthy phase in racial evolution. In a
higher degree of civilization, however, the reversion to this motive was
a regression, and decadent sex worship as it existed during the middle
ages was an attempt by certain unhealthy elements in the race to revert
to the primitive. In decadent sex worship we are dealing with an
instance of faulty mental adaptation in a way in which we had not been
accustomed to consider it. It is a case of faulty adaptation in the
race, or at least in certain elements of it, rather than in the
individual. These general analogies are noteworthy from the standpoints
of mental evolution and abnormal psychology.

In order to show how sex worship as practiced by a later civilization
was the expression of an unhealthy tendency, we must digress
sufficiently to show the setting in which decadent sex worship existed.
It is necessary to give a chronological outline indicating how primitive
beliefs succeeded each other as a result of man's progressive
development.

The earlier beliefs were an expression of nature worship. This as we
have shown, was mostly associated with the questio