may sound very shocking, yet I must say it: we can even love
_several_ individuals at the same time, with nearly equal tenderness,
and we do not necessarily lie when we assure each one of our passion.
No matter how deeply we may be in love with a certain individual, we
_do not cease_ to be susceptible to the influence of the entire sex."

And Iwan Bloch, than whom no greater investigator in the field of
sexology ever lived, asks the question: "Is it possible for any one to
be _simultaneously_ in love with several individuals?" And he
immediately says: "I answer this question with an unconditional
'yes.'" And he says further: "It is precisely the extraordinary
manifold spiritual differentiation of modern civilized humanity that
gives rise to the possibility of such a simultaneous love for two
individuals. Our spiritual nature exhibits the most varied coloring.
It is difficult always to find the corresponding complements in one
single individual."

Prof. Robert Michels says: "It is Nature's will that the normal male
should feel a continuous and powerful sexual attraction towards a
considerable number of women.... In the male the stimuli capable of
arousing sexual excitement (this term is not to be understood here in
the grossly physical sense) are so extraordinarily manifold, so widely
differentiated that it is quite impossible for one single woman to
possess them all."

Prof. von Ehrenfels wittily remarks that if it were a moral precept
that a man should never have intercourse _more them once in his life_
with any particular woman, this would correspond far better with the
nature of the normal male and would cost him far less will-power than
is needed by him in order to live up to the conventional demands of
monogamy.

And Havelock Ellis cautiously says: "A certain degree of variation is
involved in the sexual relationships, as in all other relationships,
and unless we are to continue to perpetuate _many evils and
injustices_, that fact has to be faced and recognized."

I have devoted considerable space to this topic, and I have, contrary
to my custom, quoted "authorities," because I consider this point of
the utmost importance; it is the first step in combating the demon of
jealousy. If our wives, fiancees and sweethearts could be convinced of
the truth that a man's interest in or even affection towards another
member of the female sex does not mean the death of love, or even
diminished love, half of the battle w