"Think of
the corners where that wisdom was born. . . . Flea-bitten sages in
stone-age hovels. . . . Wandering wise man with a rolling eye, a
fakir under a tree, a Jewish sheik, an Arab epileptic. . . ."
"Would you sweep away the experience of mankind?" protested Benham.
The experience of mankind in these matters had always been bitter
experience. Most of it was better forgotten. It didn't convince.
It had never worked things out. In this matter just as in every
other matter that really signified things had still to be worked
out. Nothing had been worked out hitherto. The wisdom of the ages
was a Cant. People had been too busy quarrelling, fighting and
running away. There wasn't any digested experience of the ages at
all. Only the mis-remembered hankey-pankey of the Dead Old Man.
"Is this love-making a physical necessity for most men and women or
isn't it?" Prothero demanded. "There's a simple question enough,
and is there anything whatever in your confounded wisdom of the ages
to tell me yes or no? Can an ordinary celibate be as healthy and
vigorous as a mated man? Is a spinster of thirty-eight a healthy
human being? Can she be? I don't believe so.
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