42
The Law is for All
The remainder of the paragraph takes a particular case as an 
example. There shall be no property in human flesh. The sex­
instinct is one of the most deeply-seated expressions of the will; 
and it must not be restricted, either negatively by preventing its 
free function, or positively by insisting on its false function.
What is more brutal than to stunt natural growth or to deform it?
What is more absurd than to seek to interpret this holy instinct 
as a gross animal act, to separate it from the spiritual enthusiasm 
without which it is so stupid as not even to be satisfactory to the 
persons concerned?
The sexual act is a sacrament of Will. To profane it is the great 
offence. All true expression of it is lawful; all suppression or dis­
tortion is contrary to the Law of Liberty. To use legal or financial 
constraint to compel either abstention or submission, is entirely 
horrible, unnatural and absurd. Physical constraint, up to a cer­
tain point, is not so seriously wrong; for it has its roots in the 
original sex-conflict which we see in animals, and has often the 
effect of exciting Love in his highest and noblest shape. Some of 
the most passionate and permanent attachments have begun with 
rape. Rome was actually founded thereon. Similarly, murder of a 
faithless partner is ethically excusable, in a certain sense; for there 
may be some stars whose Nature is extreme violence. The colli­
sion of galaxies is a magnificent spectacle, after all. But there is 
nothing inspiring in a visit to one’s lawyer. Of course this is 
merely my personal view; a star who happened to be a lawyer 
might see things otherwise! Yet Nature’s unspeakable variety, 
though it admits cruelty and selfishness, offers us no example of 
the puritan and the prig!
However, to the mind of Law there is an Order of Going; and 
a machine is more beautiful, save to the Small Boy, when it works 
than when it smashes. Now the Machine of Matter-Motion is an 
explosive machine, with pyrotechnic effects; but these are only 
incidentals.
Laws against adultery are based upon the idea that woman is a 
chattel, so that to make love to a married woman is to deprive the 
husband of her services. It is the frankest and most crass state­
ment of a slave-situation. To us, every woman is a star. She has 
therefore an absolute right to travel in her own orbit. There is no