Celestial Bed
In June 1781 Graham launched the Temple of Hymen in new premises at Schomberg House, in Pall Mall, designed to house the newly-built Celestial Bed. His "wonder-working edifice" was 12 by 9 feet (37 by 27 dm), and canopied by a dome covered in musical automata, fresh flowers, and a pair of live turtle doves. Stimulating oriental fragrances and "aethereal" gases were released from a reservoir inside the dome. A tilting inner frame put couples in the best position to conceive, and their movements set off music from organ pipes which breathed out "celestial sounds", whose intensity increased with the ardour of the bed's occupants. The electrified, magnetic creation was insulated by 40 cut glass pillars. At the head of the bed, above a moving clockwork tableau celebrating Hymen, the god of marriage, and sparkling with electricity, were the words:
"Be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth!"
At Schomberg House, Graham gave his famous Lecture on Generation, a frank explanation of how to conceive which saw sex as a patriotic act and procreation as a national duty. Cold water washing of the genitals was recommended as essential to good sexual health, and prostitution and masturbation were castigated. Graham gave more discreet marriage guidance in a pamphlet called "A Private Advice."
Graham’s excessive spending soon got him into financial difficulties. He vacated the Adelphi Temple of Health in July 1781, and concentrated on trying to recoup his costs at Schomberg House. He found it hard to keep out of debt, however, and although he made a succession of spectacular comebacks, by March 1784 he was forced to sell most of his possessions. He returned to Edinburgh, his reputation ruined, to display the remains of his apparatus in a temporary Temple of Health on South Bridge Street.
Read more about this topic: James Graham (sexologist)
Famous quotes containing the words celestial and/or bed:
“It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies.... Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“And you’re too fired up to go to sleep, you sit at the kitchen table. It’s really late, it’s really quiet, you’re tired. Don’t wanna go to bed, though. Going to bed means this was the day. This Feb. 12, this Aug. 3, this Nov. 20 is over and you’re tired and you made some money but it didn’t happen, nothing happened. You got through it and a whole day of your life is over. And all it is—is time to go to bed.”
—Claudia Shear, U.S. author. New York Times, p. A21 (September 29, 1993)