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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 3

Prostitution an Inseparable Condition of Society

Prostitution an Inseparable Condition of Society.

It is useless to shut our eyes to facts. Prostitution is no passing evil, but one that has existed from the first page 5 ages of the world's history down to the present time, and differs but little, and in minor particulars, in this the nineteenth century, from what it was in the earliest times. The records of the human race, from the Book of Genesis downwards, through the whole range of ancient and medieval literature to the writings of our own day, bear witness to the perpetual presence among men of the daughters of shame. Kings, philosophers, and priests, the learned and the noble, no less than the ignorant and simple, have drunk without stint in every age and every clime of Circe's cup; nor is it reasonable to suppose that in the years to come the world will prove more virtuous than it has shown itself in ages past. From time to time men's purer instincts, revolting from the sin, have striven to repress it; but such efforts have too often ended in failure, and entailed disasters more terrible than those from which relief was sought.

As one among many other instances of the futility of repressive measures, I may cite the example of the city of Berlin. This capital has on three separate occasions, since the Reformation, been purged of prostitutes, but has as often immediately fallen a prey to desertion of infants, adultery, abortions, and clandestine prostitution. Hence the present public recognition of that which the Government could neither suppress nor ignore with public advantage, has been forced upon the authorities. It is evident that it would be unreasonable to expect any other result. Equally irrational is it to imagine that this irrepressible evil can exist without entailing upon society serious mischief, which, though incapable of extinction, yet admits of mitigation. To ignore an ever-present evil appears a mistake as fatal as the attempt to repress it.