The Law is for All

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