egard to sexual questions, I think I can
affirm that when a man wishes to be loyal to himself he is generally
able to distinguish between natural desire and artificial excitation
of the sexual appetite. To be pursued and tormented by sexual images
and desires, even when striving against them, and when the legitimate
and normal occasion to satisfy them is absent, is not the same thing
as to pass the time in inventing means of artificial excitement to
pleasure and orgy while leading an idle and egoistic life. I speak
here of the normal man and not of certain pathological states in which
the sexual appetite takes the character of a perpetual obsession, even
against the will of the patient. By serious and persevering work and
by avoiding all means of excitation, the sexual appetite can usually
be kept within the bounds of moderation.

We have mentioned above pornographic art as one of the means which
artificially excite the sexual appetite. Along with the interested
exploitation of the habit of taking alcoholic drinks, exploitation of
the sexual appetite constitutes one of the largest fields of what may
be called _social brigandage_. Besides pornographic pictures, the
principal means employed to artificially excite the sexual weaknesses
of man are the following:

_Pornographic novels_ in which sexual desire is excited by all the
artifice of the novelist, and in which the illustrations often rival
those we have just spoken of to seduce the purchaser.

_Alcohol_ which, by paralyzing the judgment and will as well as moral
inhibitory sentiments, excites the sexual appetite and renders it
grossly impulsive. Its first fumes make man enterprising, and he falls
an easy prey to proxenetism and prostitution, although it soon weakens
the sexual power.

But it is the modern arsenal of _prostitution_ which plays the
principal role. The proxenets (pimps) exploit both the sexual
appetites of men and the weakness and venality of women. Their chief
source of gain consisting in the artificial excitation of the male
sexual appetite by all possible means, their art consists in dressing
their merchandise, the prostitutes, with attractive refinement,
especially when dealing with rich clients who pay well. It is on this
soil that are cultivated the most disgusting artifices, intended to
excite even the most pathological appetites.

Other causes are added to lucre, or are the consequences of it. A boy
led to masturbation by pornographic pict