The choice of a mate.

  • Ludovici, Anthony M. (Anthony Mario), 1882-1971.
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The choice of a mate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/546 (page VII)
    PRESENTED \ * I-rf BY THE EDITOR ©f X%> PREFACE IV/TY aim has been to supply authoritative information and guidance. So much that is merely conjecture has been written on the sex question, and so much of the popular literature on my present subject has nothing but the whimsicality and imagination of its authors to recommend it, that I thought it worth while to try to prepare for the reading public a book on human mating, which, if not wholly supported by science, is at least based, wherever science fails, on the authority of the best human traditions. It was not easy to achieve this aim, and no one could be better aware than I am of the extent to which I have fallen short of it; but in so far as I have succeeded, this is actually the first book of its kind on the subject. It may be inadequate. But at least it constitutes the first serious attempt to furnish an objective treatment of the problems involved. I found very little authoritative literature on the choice of a mate, and was obliged to seek the material for this first com prehensive contribution to that literature over the whole field of human experience—anthropology, medicine, art, history, philosophy, psychology, biography, fiction, poetry, dramatic works, and the lay and scientific press. On the problem of consanguinity alone I have had to range over the whole history of civilization. And if, in my inquiries, I have regarded as certain and conclusive only those scientific findings which the best human traditions confirm, it is because, without this check on science, its most trustful devotee may later on find its con clusions reversed by the successors of the present generation of scientists. I mention all these matters, not in order to vaunt my patience and industry, for these are nothing in themselves ; but, in the first place, to make it clear that this book is in every respect a pioneer effort and that it cannot, therefore, fail to suffer from the shortcomings and blemishes of all such works ; and, secondly, because by acknowledging my difficulties from the outset, I hope to be able to secure the reader’s indulgence.