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SEDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM
SEDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM
The Principles & Practices of Seduction
A Beginner's Handbook
New York BREWER AND WARREN INC. PAYSON & CLARKE LTD.
First Printing before Publication March 1930 Second Printing before Publication March 1930
SET UP, ELECTROTYPED, PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY H. WOLFF ESTATE, NEW YORK, N. Y.
DEDICATED TO HERBERT ASBURY WHO TOLD ME TO WRITE IT DOWN
INTRODUCTION
Although seduction as an applied art has been slowly developing over a period of several generations, the science of seduction has so far been largely neglected. While the value of the empirical knowledge acquired by early practitioners and transmitted to us by a great body of folk-lore should not be minimized, the trial and error methods of these precursors, both amateur and professional, are to be deplored as crude; for however refined they may have been in application, there is evidence that they were lacking in that exactness in observation which could make them valuable to science.
WHAT IS SEDUCTION?
In the first place, the word itself is unfortunately obscure, possessing an ambiguity which we must resolve before we can proceed. I have assembled an assortment of representative definitions, which follows:
Seduccion: Acci?n y effecto de seducir. Seducfr: Enga?ar con are y ma?a, persuadir suavemente al mal.
Sedurre Ridurre con vane o false apparenze al nostre valere e al male.
Verfiihrung; in geschlechtlicher Beziehung ein M?dchen verf?hren.
It is obvious that these interpretations all suffer from a common fault: they fail to reflect the modern ramifications of the word. As a matter of fact, seduction is undergoing a great change.
The rudiments of the custom may be observed in the remnants of primitive society that we are able to study. Certain aboriginal tribes practise polyandry as an economic adjustment to the surplus of males. With the development of civilization we find that adaptation tends to take the form of matriarchy, as in the United States.
In the early days of our culture, seduction was practised upon certain species of recognized placer in the social system, and thus attained a certain grade of standardization. There were the seduced and the seducers . It would appear that with the aforementioned rise of matriarchy this state of affairs is changing. The predatory instinct of humanity is not confined to the male. However, the line of reasoning suggested is too vast to follow in the limits of a small volume, and I mention it merely that the student may think about it at his leisure as he peruses the forthcoming chapters.
The extraordinary development of prostitution in the nineteenth century prefaced the present phase with a last manifestation of the old social attitude. Relying upon the assumption that the male seduces the female, we are faced in this modern world with the undeniable fact that the ranks of the seduced--i.e., the unprotected young women of society--are also shifting and changing. The orderly arrangement which we have been led to expect is breaking up. In former times our women were divided into two main classes, or groups:
Professionals
Amateurs .
However in late years there has grown up among us a third class, designated as , The only familiar term which has yet been applied was coined by Doctor Ethel Waters, who invented for them the descriptive appellation "freebies" in recognition of their independent stand in the matter of economics and convention. These revolutionists have formulated a philosophy which draws upon those of both older classes for its sources. To be freebie, seduction is neither a means of livelihood, as in the case of class , nor inevitable disgrace, as it is with class .
It is undoubtedly this school of thought that influenced the Missouri jurist who, after a long and tiresome case of seduction, in which he found for the defendant, made a pronouncement from the bench to the effect that "There is no such thing as seduction." Although in my opinion this statement is somewhat extreme for our purposes, it serves to demonstrate the modern trend of sentiment.
The modern social attitude had its prototype in the days of Cleopatra, where, as every classical scholar knows, the women of the upper classes exhibited an amazing independence. In Rome and Alexandria "the professional courtesans were gloomily complaining that their business had been hard hit by the fact that the ladies of fashion asked no payment for exertions of a similar nature."
Footnote 1:
The Sexual Life of Savages. B. Malinowski.
Footnote 2:
Footnote 3:
Footnote 4:
The Beautiful Victim: Being a Full Account of the Seduction and Sorrows of Miss Mary Kirkpatrick .
Footnote 5:
Footnote 6:
Eddinger versus Thompson: Harris j.
Footnote 7:
For further exposition of juridical aspects of the subject see Die Zivilrechtlichen Anspr?che von Frauenspersonen aus aus-serehelichem Beischlafe: Hans Hochstein.
Footnote 8:
Personalities of Antiquity ... Arthur Weigall.
SEDUCTION IN HISTORY
The records preserved from older civilizations are too fundamental in treatment to be of much value to us in the matter of details. We know, however, that the mythology and folklore of any race presents a more or less accurate idea of the customs of the time. Granting an amount of exaggeration in the fables, we have still the proof that seduction has always been a recognized practice in Heaven. Scarcely a god has not dabbled in the art at one time or another. In the first place they start off with the advantages of divinity and a working knowledge of black magic. They could be called seducers in the true sense of the word only by courtesy. Jupiter, to take an example, used methods of archaic and brutal simplicity. To be sure, he would sometimes take the trouble to turn himself into a swan or a bull or a shower of gold, but such exercises are second nature to a deity and cause no delay or exhaustion. Ammon, the Egyptian god, associated exclusively with royalty, and no one thought of calling him to task for such moral irregularities. On the contrary, the kingly family was proud of him.
A close study of the ancient Indians reveals the fact that they deemed seduction one of the most important of the arts, rivalling philosophy in popularity as a study. The Chinese with their customary reserve, make no mention of such matters in official papers, but a quantity of poetry and maxims discloses a keen Oriental interest in the topic. The Old Testament abounds in stories of seduction by means of trickery, bribery and simple persuasion. It is safe to assume from the records that seduction in all parts of the civilized world was at about the same stage of primary development.
The Middle Ages show some progress. Literature was growing into an important culture, and we have much more source material. There are manifestations of refinement in the ancient game, but at the same time the world was not as light-hearted about these matters as it had been in the past. The growth of the Church, with its set ideas of these subjects and its zeal to catalogue the sins of mankind and to deal out punishment accordingly, gave to seduction its greatest impetus. At no other time in history has such a vast amount of time and thought been expended on one idea. It became a sin, and therefore a necessity.
Added to the stimulation of the churchly attitude was that of the caste system, which made seduction the only means of communication between the classes. The Renaissance introduced a new fashion, persuasion by means of bribery. Kings and their courtiers led the movement by elevating their mistresses to dizzy heights of power and wealth. The sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed an influx of new families and the ascent of many a lowly maiden. Several of the noblest families of England trace their origin to such glittering seductions. Indeed this process became at one time so notorious that it crept into folklore and has been preserved for us in many a ballad, of which the following is representative:
"She was poor but she was honest, Victim of the Squire's whim."
Even before this period, England had introduced a variation of the art in the form of Chivalry. This school of behaviour, while professing an ignorance of the very rudiments of seduction, nevertheless played an important part in its development, as is convincingly illustrated by the old song:
"In days of old, when knights were bold And barons held their sway, A warrior bold, with spurs of gold, Sang merrily his lay."
But aside from the royal habits, there was no imagination, no finesse to seduction. It was a stereotyped affair, a furtive irregularity, a silly little sin. The seduction of the middle classes was a monotonous business, popular only by reason of the danger it entailed. It has remained for our modern world to raise it to a place of dignity among the leading interests of all society.
Footnote 9:
Bulfinch's Mythology.
Footnote 10:
The Golden Bough. Sir J. Frazer.
Footnote 11:
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