Restif de
la Bretonne, describing his own shame and timidity as a pretty boy whom
the girls would run after and kiss, adds: "It is surprising that at the
same time I would imagine the pleasure I should have in embracing a girl
who resisted, in inspiring her with timidity, in making her flee and in
pursuing her; that was a part which I burned to play."[15] It is the
instinct of the sophisticated and the unsophisticated alike. The Arabs
have developed an erotic ideal of sensuality, but they emphasize the
importance of feminine modesty, and declare that the best woman is "she
who sees not men and whom they see not."[16] This deep-rooted modesty of
women towards men in courtship is intimately interwoven with the marriage
customs and magic rites of even the most primitive peoples, and has
survived in many civilized practices to-day.[17] The prostitute must be
able to simulate the modesty she may often be far from feeling, and the
immense erotic advantage of the innocent over the vicious woman lies
largely in the fact that in her the exquisite reactions of modesty are
fresh and vigorous. "I cannot imagine anything that is more sexually
exciting," remarks Hans Menjago, "than to observe a person of the opposite
sex, who, by some external or internal force, is compelled to fight
against her physical modesty. The more modest she is the more sexually
exciting is the picture she presents."[18] It is notable that even in
abnormal, as well as in normal, erotic passion the desire is for innocent
and not for vicious women, and, in association with this, the desired
favor to be keenly relished must often be gained by sudden surprise and
not by mutual agreement.
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