Walker Feinlein writes for us again; this time about a little remembered inventor who changed all our lives.
Very few people today realize the enormous debt they owe to a sixteenth century inventor whose discovery enriched and changed the lives of most of us, especially those of the male gender. So its fitting as this month is the 400th anniversary of his work, that we reflect and give thanks to this forward thinking young man.
James Masturb was only 23, and living in a small Quaker village of Wotton on Trent, in 1612, when he made the discovery which was to make his name a household word.
A shy young man, with a deeply spiritual nature, he always disliked having masturbation named after him, preferring to call it The Great Joy, which was the title of his widely circulated pamphlet which subsequently swept Europe and was translated into 80 languages during his long and happy lifetime.
How he made the discovery is not certain, and he himself was very oblique about it, but in those times, new ideas were rare and often suspect by definition. Thought and innovation were communally shared, it was unknown for instance to ever read silently, one read aloud in the family or the church, and a degree of conformity and restrictedness in thought and deed was not seen as oppressive. Rather one had a deep sense of connection and support; and religion and daily life were one and the same. The innovation must have sprung from some deep inner need, and a spark of rare creativity. His biography “By My Own Hand” is skimpy in its early pages, and dealt much more with the effects of his fame and attempts to remain humble and God-fearing despite the accolades of virtually all his contemporaries.
Whatever may have been the inner process, James first made public reference to his discovery in a Quaker meeting, where the practice was, as it still is today, to sit in long and peaceful silence, speaking only when the urgings of God within drew one to speak. His short announcement was met with a long silence, though some shuffling and clearing of throats among both men and women was evident.
The following week though, the meeting was punctuated by passionate and happy declarations from male attenders. The practice clearly had found favour.
Masturbation as a practice and idea swept Europe and out into the nascent colonies, though it is thought that it might already have been discovered in other isolated parts of the globe independently.
There were enormous ramifications. Agricultural production fell right through the early 1600’s. The marriage rate plunged, and yet when people did marry, they were markedly happier and more placid. The population fell progressively and religious fervour and especially wars on sectarian grounds declined almost completely.
The benefits were not only for males, although women were more circumspect and the writings more guarded. Religious women in particular wrote glorious if somewhat poetic tributes to the practice. Most famous among these was Catherine of Siena’s lovely epigram that ends “All the way to heaven is heaven” .
Masturb himself married in 1614, and was the father of seven children and lived until an astonishing 102. Though he remained in his home village all his life, he did travel Europe at the invitation of learned societies and universities, and met with crowds of admirers and grateful people in their thousands. Its unlikely that ever an invention could have made so many people happy and well.
Men and boys, girls and women today owe James Masturb a great debt, and his life should be celebrated and honoured. Lest we forget.
