CHAPTER IV.
THE VALUATION OF SEXUAL LOVE.
The Conception of Sexual Love--The Attitude of Mediaeval Asceticism--St.
Bernard and St.Odo of Cluny--The Ascetic Insistence on the Proximity of the Sexual and Excretory Centres--Love as a Sacrament of Nature--The Idea of the Impurity of Sex in Primitive Religions Generally--Theories of the Origin of This Idea--The Anti-Ascetic Element in the Bible and Early Christianity--Clement of Alexandria--St.Augustine's Attitude--The Recognition of the Sacredness of the Body by Tertullian, Rufinus and Athanasius--The Reformation--The Sexual Instinct Regarded as Beastly--The Human Sexual Instinct Not Animal-like--Lust and Love--The Definition of Love--Love and Names for Love Unknown in Some Parts of the World--Romantic Love of Late Development in the White Race--The Mystery of Sexual Desire--Whether Love is a Delusion--The Spiritual as Well as the Physical Structure of the World in Part Built up on Sexual Love The Testimony of Men of Intellect to the Supremacy of Love..