The Law is for All

Chapter I a Verse 51 57 Hitherto our sexual tabus have kept far ahead of Gilbert and Sullivan. We have made love the lackey to property, as who should pay his rent by sneezing. We have swaddled it in polite­ ness, as who should warn God off the grass. We have muddled it up with morality, as who should frown at the Himalayas on the one hand, and, on the other, regulate his behaviour by that of an ant-heap. The Law of Thelema is here! (It appears pertinent to add that the above ethical theories have stood the test of practice. Experiment shows that complete removal—in the most radical manner—of all the usual restric­ tions on conduct results, after a brief period of uneasiness of var­ ious kinds, in the subject dropping entirely into the background; the parties concerned became natural, and led what would con­ ventionally be called “strictly moral” lives without even knowing that they were doing so.) As a Postscript, let me contrast with the above theories two actual cases of Marriage as it is in England. No. 1. Mr. W., a solicitor and gentleman farmer of consider­ able wealth: a Plymouth Brother. Called, in Southsea, Hants., where he practiced: “The Honest Lawyer.” Every time that his wife gave birth to a child, or miscarried, she lay for weeks—often months—between life and death, with peri­ typhlitis or peritonitis set up by the difficulties of parturition. Yet this man, knowing this well, had gone on and on remorselessly. When I knew him he had 18 children living, and two more were born during that period. It was evidently his view that he had an absolute Right to impregnate his wife, and that it was her business whether she lived or died. During all these years she was no sooner well enough to leave her bed than she was again “in the family way.” Thus in 25 years, she was never permitted so much as a month’s good health. This Mr. W. was a most kindly and genial man, devoted to her and his family, genuinely pious and tender­ hearted. But it never occurred to him to refrain from exercis­ ing the Right which he possessed to endanger her life every year. (He suffered intensely with anxiety for his wife’s health.) No. 2. Mr. H., a very skilful engraver and die-sinker, a man of refined tastes and delicate feelings, sensitive beyond the