Part 4 (2/2)
From Whence does the s.e.x Proceed and What Determines It?
So much has been written about this matter, and so many foolish, low, and really debasing theories and speculations have been advanced in relation thereto, that I deem it expedient at this time, and in this place, to put forth the true theory of the reproduction of the s.e.xes, one that can endure the test of the most rigid scientific investigation.
The only theory upon this subject worthy of notice, must be based upon a principle that will hold good and true throughout all animated nature, not only in the animal, but in the vegetable kingdom as well.
The earth is the common mother of the vegetable world; seeds of all kinds fall into her and she brings forth male and female plants according to the seeds planted. The _earth_ certainly does not give the s.e.x to plants for they come forth according to the life inherent in the seed; if this life-force be male, the plant must be male; and if the life-force of the seed be female, the product must be a female plant.
The earth can possibly bring forth no other s.e.x than that which the life-force of the seed impels.
This is true in the animal creation. Within the female grows the seed given her by the male, be it male or female, and she can grow none other. In other words the male as is very evident on mature reflection gives the soul or the inmost vital principle, and the female clothes that soul, or gives it a body in which to operate. What else can the male do; what office does he perform, if it is not strictly this: to impart of his life-giving spirit! The mother in clothing this germ of life commingles, intertwines, and insinuates her own spirit, at the same time educating, instructing, and determining its development according to the influence she imparts to it. So the offspring partakes largely of the nature of both its parents. The determination as to whether he begets a male or female depends entirely upon the inmost vital state of the male at the time of giving, although he is unconscious of the fact, so that he can have no choice and no regulation, as some writers most absurdly claim, in the matter of the forth-coming s.e.x. He determines or produces it unconsciously and involuntarily, the mother simply receiving, clothing, and issuing from her body what the father has given her.
It must not be forgotten when exploring these deep subjects that man is a spiritual being, clothed with a material body, that his spirit is his inmost, and that what proceeds from him in the generative act has life from his inmost; consequently the life-giving principle of his s.e.m.e.n is from his inmost, which const.i.tutes its life-giving power. This inmost from the male, the begetting power, is clothed by his seminal fluid for an All-wise purpose; it is not the gross material, the clothing, that begets, but the living power which this material contains, which fructifies, or becomes conjoined, or commingled with the vital force of the ovule of the mother,[K] so that she can clothe it; and when so conjoined the germ, or seed, is planted in congenial soil. Conception has thus really taken place by virtue of this act, and the animal mother proceeds with her reproduction precisely upon the same general principles that mother earth reproduces corn from a single kernel.
[K] See Guernsey's Obstetrics, 3d edition, on Reproduction.
It is universally acknowledged that the Lord creates, that we owe all to Him, that He gives us our children, etc., etc. This is true, and it is also true that He makes use of the parents, through whom he operates to this end. By the constant influx of his Divine Love and Wisdom He gives us life, and by virtue of this constant influx into the father who begets, the mother's conception becomes doubly sacred. She conceives from her husband, and at the same instant the Lord by virtue of His Divine Power breathes into that conception the breath of life, whereby it becomes a living soul. By the light of this truth we see that it is not the parents who give life to their offspring. They only supply the pure material substances which are organized into the human form by the living and life-giving forces which constantly flow in from the Lord who is life itself and from whom all life constantly emanates.
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