Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects

“Everything was created for use,” Henry N. Guernsey begins—and from that sweeping claim turns to the most private of human subjects: the bodies and bonds of men and women.

Writing in the late nineteenth century, physician Guernsey challenges the silence surrounding sexual knowledge, especially what parents should tell their children. He traces human development from conception onward, then considers the relations between the sexes through a moral lens of chastity and proper conduct. His aim is not merely to describe the body, but to show how understanding it might shape individual happiness and family life. What harm, he asks, can follow when a subject so central to life is left unspoken?

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