Читать книгу Owen's Moral Physiology; or, A Brief and Plain Treatise on the Population Question онлайн

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The philosopher, in asking himself the question, what is love, solves it by asking another question, what is an animal, or what is man?

Looking at mankind, he finds them of two classes, male and female, varying but little as to external form or internal character. He finds that they possess the same passions, the same desires, that they live by the same means, and with the difference of the female being the body qualified to breed the species, he sees them in every respect to be exactly alike.

Reproduction or accumulation of identities similar to self is a common law of animal and vegetable matter; and the disposition to reproduce in all well-formed and healthy subjects is as powerful as hunger, or thirst, or the desire of self-preservation. It is a passion not criminal in the indulgence, but criminality attaches where the indulgence is withheld; because health, and even life, is endangered. It is not an artificial passion, such as a craving to exhibit the distinctions of society; but a natural passion, which we hold in common with every other animal. It grows with our growth, and is strengthened with our strength.