Page:Sexology.djvu/155

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paternal household. These changes are difl&cult to attain, but, we repeat, they will be made, and then only shall the daughter mingle in the material and moral life of her parents, and shall become a companion and an aid where now she too often weighs as an incumbrance.

As for fraternal love, we do not know that there is so great a difference in the sexes. "We find equally charming models in brother and sister, only there is a sexuality iji its method of manifestation. According as one or the other has the advantage of years, the role of protector changes in character. The brother protects in the capacity of cavalier, the sister in that of mother.

Conjugal tenderness has its heroines, but not its heroes. "What masculine example can match Eponina, sharing her husband's hiding-place in a cave for nine years, when dis- covered, vainly imploring the emperor's clemency for her husband, and dying a voluntary martyr to her affection? Or, the modern instance of Lady Franklin ? Whole vol- umes are filled with histories of conjugal love on the part of wives. It is so entirely natural that, even when extin- guished by criminal passion, it is frequently revived by the husband's danger. Unfaithful wives will often hasten to the sick-beds of their husbands, spend their days and nights there, neglecting those whom they love, but who are in health, for those they no longer love, but who are ill. A man will fight for his wife, perhaps, though he no longer cares for her, but it is his pride rather than his heart which defends her.

It is remarkable that, while in all languages, ancient and modern, the love of brother or sister, husband or wife, daughter or son is expressed by a single word — fraternal, conjugal, filial — that of the mother for her children is marked by a character so personal that it has everywhere