[Under this caption, O. S. FOWLER, in his work entitled, "Amativeness," has spoken to the point. May the reader feel the force of his timely admonitions.--ED.]
"A few palpable facts. A single physician in a factory village of some two or three thousand inhabitants only, had at one time over seventy venereal patients, besides many who were under the care of other doctors in the place! Look at the practice of those who advertise to cure this class of diseases. Catechise physicians on this point. Cast your eye over almost any newspaper, and then see how much of their relative space is occupied with advertisements of cures and practitioners of 'certain delicate diseases!' This diabolical business advertises double and quadruple above any other! This tells the doleful story. And the countless bills--half of all you see posted up in all our cities--echo its saddening notes! Madam Restell's riches and murders re-echo more plaintive still the groans and woes of unhallowed passion! A physician recently avowed his belief that if, by any secret means, however painful or dangerous, he could prevent progeny, he could make a princely fortune in a year. Thank God! no one has found out a specific preventive. Nor ever should; because this will throw open the floodgates of passion, and trample under the foot of unbridled lust nature's great ordinance, nature's great laws. Hear our news-boys either boast of their licentiousness, or else tantalize those whose native modesty is not yet wholly effaced, of their failure!
"What kinds of edibles command the highest price in the market? Those that stimulate this passion, and because they create impure desires. What mean those oyster stews, and crab parties, and terrapin soups, and squab suppers, wild fowls, cloves, and a host of other like things? Eaten, in many instances in high (?low) life, expressly to beget unhallowed desires! Oh! shame, where is thy blush! Do you want more proof ? Behold the fertile South. But particulars are too revolting, both as regards the beastly indulgence of whites with blacks, and the number of rakes and harlots among the latter! Our world is literally FULL of sensuality!
"O, virtue! how few worship at thy holy shrine, or keep thy robe of spotless innocence unstained with carnality! To say what proportion keep their robes white, and know only their lawful companions, it is difficult to say, but not many stones would be cast if they alone cast them. Alas! how few observe the seventh commandment! And how almost universally is chastity sacrificed to lust, in one or other of its forms!
"But even this is not all; is not the most; is not the worst! One other form of this vice is doubtless little less appalling, and another is probably even more so! Reference is had, first, to excessive indulgence in wedlock, and next, to private sensuality. Few know that any excess of the former, however great, can possibly be sinful, and almost all suppose that marriage entitles to its right in any desired excess. But does marriage entitle the parties to kill each other or themselves? Little do we realize how many are dying continually around us from this sole cause. How and why this proves thus injurious, we shall see hereafter.
"Would that we could here end this painful chapter. Its worst, because most common, form still remains untold. We refer to SELF-ABUSE.
You look surprised. "A false alarm," you exclaim. "Impossible!" But put it to any numerical test you please. Catechise promiscuously every boy you meet, and then say if nine in every ten, from eleven years old and upwards, and half, from seven to eleven, do not practice more or less? Many who deny in words, own up in deed by the shame manifested--a sure sign of guilt. Of those still older, the proportion is greater yet. Question the keepers of our hospitals for bad boys and poor children. A friend took a boy about ten years old from an asylum for poor and orphan children, and finding that he took every opportunity, when alone, to perpetrate this filthy practice, chastised him often and severely, but to no purpose, and finally kept his hands tied behind him as the only preventive, but at length disposed of him as incorrigible. The boy has since died. I have known boys not yet four years old, both practice it, and also indulge with the opposite sex; and known hundreds ruined by it before they entered their teens! Nor are any children safe from this loathsome habit. Especially are our schools the nurseries of this vice, where it is often practiced in companies. 'I speak what I do know, and testify what I have seen.' Nor are any of even our own dear children, though watched however closely, safe from this corrupting and deadly snare!
"Nor am I alone in this view of its extensive practice among children. Dr. Woodward, higher authority than whom I could hardly quote, writes thus, touching this matter: 'Those who hold these opinions,' namely, that information on this subject is either unnecessary or injurious, and 'are hardly aware how extensively known this habit is with the young, or how early in life it is sometimes practiced. I have never conversed with a lad twelve years of age who did not know all about the practice, and understand the language used to describe it.' Remember, he who expresses himself thus strongly, is a cautious, discreet man, and always says much less than he means. So alarming does he regard this evil, that he has devoted a work to its exposition, entitled 'Hints to the Young.' Wm. C. Woodbridge, so long and so ably devoted to the cause of education, and whose means of knowing was extensive, thus writes in that able work, 'The Annals of Education:' 'A topic in Physiology which "artificial modesty" has covered up until a solitary but fatal vice is spreading desolation throughout our schools and families, unnoticed and unknown.' 'Thousands,' says E. M. R. Wells, a distinguished teacher in Boston, 'of pure minded and amiable boys and young men, are undermining their physical constitutions, and prospectively corrupting their souls, by a pleasurable, and, to many of them, an innocent, gratification.'
" 'What,' says a fond parent, 'our high schools and colleges contaminated with this vice? Even so. They are the most infected; first, because their boys are highly organized, and such experience proportionally greater pleasure and injury; and secondly, this vice pre-eminently is catching, especially as they commingle thus freely with each other.[1] An English medical author remarks: 'Some children escape this knowledge till puberty; the majority, it is to be feared, however, commence earlier. . . . Schools generally have the credit of germinating this enervating fascination; but it is also acquired from the tuition of associates at home--from servants, relations, and others with whom they sleep.' 'Concealment,' says A. Walker, 'is quite impracticable.'
"Ruinous and prevalent as this practice is among boys, it does not end with childhood; but extends its sway, and deepens its power, as adolescence increases. One would think this is merely boyish, foolish practice, which age would correct; but years only serve to increase it. I do not delight to scandalize my fellow-men; I would not trespass upon the reader's credulity, but I solemnly declare, as my deliberate conviction, that few of my own sex wholly escape this snare; while thousands on thousands die annually from this one cause! My sources of information are not few, nor limited, nor recent. This work I have contemplated for ten years, and of course directed my observations and inquiries accordingly. I have been consulted in cases, almost without number, by those on the brink of ruin, who sought relief from its consequences. I know its subjects by its infallible signs, and, go where I will, in the busy street, in the lecture room, in the family, they throng me like leaves in autumn. One who knows, and is connected with West Point Academy, said he believed it to be practiced very generally at that institution; and that the debility occasioned thereby was the reason why so many of its students were unable to pass examination. In 1841, on application from the author of 'Facts and Important Information for Young Men,' in a communication to him on this subject, I expressed my views as follows:
" 'PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 8, 1841.
" 'Mr. G._____., Dear Sir: Your letter and book are received. I am right glad you have taken hold of this subject. Much as reform is needed in other matters, no reform--no, not even that in reference to alcoholic drinks--is demanded half as much as in reference to this solitary vice. To this conclusion my practice, which, you know, has not been limited, and my means of information, which have been varied and extensive, have led me reluctantly, but inevitably. And, what is most deplorable, unlike other forms of vice which prey upon the coarse and the vulgar, this is even more likely to attack those of fine feelings and ardent temperaments, and otherwise unblemished morals. They are not aware that this is one of the greatest sins that they can commit.
" 'I have of late seen this evil to be so alarming, and its ravages on the intellect, and morals, and health, so fearful, that I have contemplated preparing a work on the phrenological organ of Amativeness, to consist mainly of the physiological, intellectual, and moral effects of this vice; but I rejoice that you are before me in this matter.
" 'I could give you a vast number of facts that have come to my knowledge. A few days ago, a young man who had been a gentleman, called upon me, in a state of mind and body truly wretched--the mere wreck of a man. His head was affected and painful, the back part of it in particular; and his mind was literally distracted with these horrors which this indulgence always induces. His mind was flighty, his appetite destroyed, and the tones of his voice the very personification of grief. Both his head and his conversation gave evidence of superior talents in ruins. Fifty times, in the course of an hour, did he exclaim, "O my God, what shall I do! I am mad, I know it. What can I do?"
" 'In laying open his case, in order that I might give him advice, he mentioned his having been much addicted to this habit, and would often bring his hand to these parts, an invariable sign of their being in a fevered state, either by secret indulgence, or indulgence with the other sex. His anxiety was, to escape the madhouse, and regain self-control; because on this he had always prided himself. On inquiring of him as to the prevalence of this evil, he said that nine-tenths of his acquaintances were given to it.
" 'On inquiring of one of the physicians in Blockley Alms House, Philadelphia, as to the number of its inmates who were brought into the insane department by its instrumentality, he started at once upon his feet, and spoke with great energy and emphasis of its influence in inducing derangement, and narrated several very interesting cases. In my visit to that institution a few days ago, I saw several insane patients who were brought there by this vice, and whose hands were tied, to prevent self-pollution.
" 'If it is facts that you want, I assure you they exist in abundance in every degree of aggravation. Let the young be warned, for most of its victims become so ignorantly. Let us have light, especially in our institutions of learning; because there, the absence of exercise, the seclusion from female society, and the character of their studies, especially those that cultivate (vitiate) the imagination, all tend to induce and increase the evil.' "
"Nor am I alone. All who say anything, corroborate this sad testimony. Dr. Alcott, whose authority will deservedly be regarded as weighty, writes concerning it thus:
" 'We believe that a majority of our diseases and infirmities--our aches, our pains, and our deformities, too--after the age of puberty, are either induced or aggravated in this way. Believe it, did we say? Would to Heaven this expression were as strong as the nature of the case and the character of the facts warrant. We know it is so, as well as we know anything of mathematical demonstration, or the actual testimony of our senses.'
"Dr. Snow, of Boston, confirms this painful testimony, as follows: " 'Self-pollution is undoubtedly one of the most common causes of ill health that can be found among the young men of this country. From the observations that I have been able to make, I am satisfied that the practice is almost universal. Boys commence at an early age; and the habit once formed, like that of intemperance, becomes almost unconquerable. In boarding schools and colleges, it obtains oftentimes without an exception. Hence the many sickly students, and the many young men of the most brilliant and promising talents, who have broken their constitution and ruined their health, as it is said, "by hard study!" '
"Nor, in my humble judgment, do any of these statements overrate the evil; but far underrate it, as regards its prevalence in this country. English authors speak almost as freely regarding its prevalence there. If it is less extensively practiced in France, it is probably because licentiousness proper takes its place.
" 'But our females, at least, are safe,' exclaims the fond mother. 'My daughter's native modesty is her shield of protection.' Would to God this were so! but facts wrest even this consolation from us. They may be less infected, yet woman, young and modest, is dying by thousand, of consumption, of female complaints, of nervous or spinal affections, of general debility, and of other ostensible complaints innumerable, and some of insanity, caused solely by this practice. On this point, Dr. Woodward again thus speaks out:
" 'About two years ago, a young woman, aged twenty-two years, came under my care, in a state of the worst form of insanity. She was furious, noisy, filthy, and, apparently, nearly reduced to idiocy. She had been in this condition many months, and continued so for some time while with me. She was pale and bloodless, had but little appetite, frequently rejected her food, and was reduced in flesh and strength. Finding her one day more calm than usual, I hinted to her the subject of masturbation, and informed her that, if she practiced it, she could not get well--if she abandoned it, she might. She did not deny the charge, and promised to follow my advice strictly. In two or three weeks from that time, she was preceptibly better; her mind improved as her health gained; and both were much better in the course of a few weeks. The recovery was very rapid in this case. At the end of six months she had excellent health, was quite fleshy, and became perfectly sane; and has continued so, so far as we have known, to this time.
" 'Not long since, a case of periodical insanity came under my observation, the subject of which was a young lady. The disease had existed ten years without any material change. Suspecting that masturbation was the cause, I directed her mother to ascertain, if possible, and inform me. Some months after, I received intelligence that my patient was better, and that my suspicions of her habit were confirmed by the observation of her friends. The case is not without hope, although of so long standing, if the cause be removed.
" 'Three or four similar cases have been under my care recently, in which individuals of the same sex have been reduced to the same degraded state. They are now, and will continue to be while life remains, a melancholy spectacle of human misery, without mind, without delicacy or modesty, constantly harassed by the most ungovernable passion, and under the influence of propensities excited to morbid activity by a vice far more prevalent than has been supposed. A large proportion of the "bed-ridden" cases, of which there are so many in the community, will be found to have originated in this cause."'
"Mrs. Gove, in her Lectures to Ladies on Anatomy and Physiology--subjects which every woman should understand--thus discourses concerning its prevalence among her sex.
" 'About eight years since, my mind was awakened to examine this subject by the perusal of a medical work that described the effects of this vice when practiced by females. This was the first intimation I had that the vice existed among our sex. Since that time I have had much evidence that it is fearfully common among them.
" 'There is reason to believe that, in nine cases out of ten, those unhappy females who are tenants of houses of ill-fame, have been victims of this vice in the first place. Were this the peculiar vice of the low and vulgar, there might be more excuse for the apathy and false delicacy that pervaded the community respecting it. But it invades all ranks. Professed Christians are among its victims.
" 'Our boarding and day schools are sources of untold mischief. A short time since, two sisters, ladies of the first respectability, informed me that, when very young, they were put to a female boarding-school, where this vice prevailed, and the practice was explained to them. They were blessed with parents who were willing to converse with and warn their children, and they escaped the contamination.'
"One of her correspondents writes that she 'became addicted to solitary vice about the age of nine years.' 'Facts and Important Information to Young Woman,' etc., a work which we recommend cordially, details many instances illustrative of the prevalence of this vice.
"My own practice and observation, as to its prevalence, confirm and considerably exceed these statements. I have one infallible test, which I often apply without the knowledge of its subjects, and thereby detect many who little suspect me of knowing their secret practices. Called to prescribe for as young woman, and knowing from this sign what caused her complaint, I sought an interview with her mother, to whom I disclosed my suspicions. She said she thought her daughter innocent, but knew she had slept much with an elder girl who was addicted to it. I asked her what she knew concerning its prevalence. She said a girl in her neighborhood had just died from its effects, and that the female operatives in a neighboring factory practiced it almost universally; as she learned from one of them. She named other factories in which it was hardly less prevalent. I know little girls below their teens, who thus abuse themselves, and, from my application of the test named above, am constrained to believe the practice alarmingly extensive among the fairest portion of creation! I sicken at the thought. Oh! woman, 'who hath thus bewitched you that ye should' thus depart from the paths of delicacy, and health, and happiness?
"But I forbear, simply alleging that the plague is all around and all among us. None of our daughters or sons are safe, however carefully we may guard them, till we cast out 'this accursed' plague from among us. And being a common enemy, it can be extirpated only by community of effort. Single hands can do but little. Nothing but combined, concentrated, and long-continued exertion can avert the wide-spread and insidious contagion. Come, up and doing, every lover of his race, every lover of his own dear children. Even for their sakes, if on no other account, gird yourselves to this disagreeable but indispensable work of philanthropy and reform, till we drive this common enemy from our midst. O gracious God! save our youth, for they border on ruin. Must they indeed fall a prey to a vice so brutal? Must they decay and die in their youth, but not till all the horrors of even a youthful death give relief to their tortured bodies and souls? Save especially female purity, and maiden loveliness.
Effects
"Happiness is the one constitutional product of every function of our being. Yet every function is capable of painful action. Nor are these two forms or products of the action of our respective functions, chance comers and goers, but all are governed by inflexible law. That function is necessarily pleasurable which harmonizes with the primitive constitution, and fulfills the legitimate designs, of the faculty exercised, and is called normal or natural. That action of any function is painful which violates or departs from its normal primitive institution or end, and is called abnormal, which means unnatural.
"Of course, these natural axioms apply with significant emphasis to the element before us. To fulfill the legitimate ends for which this was ordained, is to be happy in its exercise; not to fulfill it, and especially to depart from it, is to suffer in and by its exercise. Now excessive promiscuous, and matrimonial, and solitary, indulgence, violate this function and cause pain. We come now to consider the evils consequent on these its perversions."
"To enumerate the tithe of the evils consequent on excessive sexual indulgence, whether promiscuous, or matrimonial, or solitary, all one in substance, would fill a world with volumes, as it already has with woes, and keep it full. We shall develop, first, some of its destruction of health, and generation of physical evils and sufferings; next, its destruction of the moral tone or stamina, and its production of propensity and depravity in forms without number, and aggravation beyond description. To enumerate a few.
It injures health
"To dwell here on the importance of health as a means of enjoyment, and its essentiality to every form and degree of happiness, would take us too far from our subject. Suffice it to say, that WHATEVER impairs the health, or engenders disease, is proportionally fatal to happiness, and prolific of suffering. Now, that excessive sexual indulgence injures the health, and in a pre-eminent degree, appears from the following, among its other effects:
It exhausts the body
"Those at all acquainted, experimentally, with the nature of this function, need not be told that few things are equally exhausting. This function was instituted to transmit the entire mentality and physiology of parents to offspring; and since the latter take on the existing conditions of the former, and these only, it becomes absolutely necessary that this function should call forth, in a powerful degree of action, all the mental, all the physical, functions of parents, as the means of their transmission to offspring. Now this intense and simultaneous action of all the functions of our nature in this indulgence, of course proportionally exhausts. A hard day's work does not equally prostrate and fatigue.
It enfeebles the mind
"Frequent indulgence in any of its forms, will run down, and run out, any one, of either sex. Those who would write, or speak, or study, must forego this indulgence or intellectual exertion, or else die. Powerful constitutions will stand an immense drain before they finally break, but terrible indeed is the result.
"Mere animal temperaments are less injured, because, by supposition, their vitality is abundant, and its drain by other functions is slight; nor do they enjoy this function as do those more highly organized, and hence are proportionally less exhausted. Such live, to be sure; so do brutes. Carnal, groveling, sensual, lowlived animals, living mainly on a single pleasure, when their nature serves up so many! Let such revel in lust, because capable of little else. But those highly organized must partake rarely, else it will excite to distraction, and proportionally exhaust. Besides, they can expend their less-abundant, perhaps deficient, vitality to better advantage. Frequent indulgence must necessarily be lustful, and therefore debasing to their higher feelings. Those whose intellectuality and morality are feeble, may spend their surplus vitality on this passion with less injury, yet cannot cultivate their higher faculties while they thus revel in lust. Let such remain all animal and revel on. But for those who have already too little vitality to sustain their higher faculties--for such to rob all their nobler, godlike elements of vitality, just to expend it on a sensual, debasing passion, is physical, mental, and moral suicide. Red-faced, bloated, coarse-grained, gouty subjects--it matters little what becomes of them. About as well go to Texas and be shot as any way, or stay and kill themselves, because worth little anyhow. But for light-built, fine-skinned, fine-haired, spare-built, sharpfeatured, light-eyed persons, of either sex, to indulge, even in wedlock, as often as the moon quarters is gradual but effectual destruction of both soul and body; because they already work off vitality faster than their feeble vital apparatus manufactures it. This excess of expenditure over supply occasions their sharpness. A surplus would render them fleshy. Now to add the most powerful drain of all to their already sparse supply, must sooner or later, according to their vigor of constitution, render them bankrupts of life.
"It will not kill you outright. It will first weaken the garrison of life, and thus open the door for disease to come in and attack the weakest part, and complete the work of death in the name of other diseases. As bees, by swarming too freely, leave portions of their hive unprotected, and thus allow the deposit of those destructive worms which a full supply of bees would have prevented, so this indulgence drains the system of vitality, and of course leaves the weaker organs especially debilitated, till disease, thus invited, sets in, destroys the feebler organs, and ends in death; attributed, however, to consumption, dyspepsia, gravel, nervous, heart, and other affections, according as this or that organ is naturally most feeble, but rarely to its true cause. Ask any medical man conversant with diseases having this origin, and he will tell you that no other cause of disease equals this, either as a number, or aggravation, or difficulty of cure. Hear Dr. Woodward on this point:
" 'That the evil is wide-spread and exceedingly injurious, cannot be denied or doubted. A great number of the ills which come upon the young, at and after the age of puberty, arise from this habit, persisted in, so as to waste the vital energies and enervate the physical and mental powers of man.
" 'Nature designs that this drain upon the system should be reserved to mature age, and even then that it be made but sparingly. Sturdy manhood, in all its vigor, loses its energy, and bends under the too frequent expenditure of this important secretion; and no age or condition will protect a man from the danger of unlimited indulgence, legally and naturally exercised.
" 'In the young, however, its influence is much more seriously felt; and even those who have indulged so cautiously as not to break down the health of the mind, cannot know how much their physical energy, mental vigor, and moral purity, have been affected by the indulgence.
" 'No cause is more influential in producing insanity. The records of the institutions give an appalling catalogue of cases attributed to it.'
"A doctor in Brooklyn thus writes to the author of 'Facts, etc., to Young Men':
" 'Brooklyn, Dec. 19, 1840.
" 'In my own practice, I think I have seen the following results of masturbation: involuntary emissions, prostration of strength, paralysis of the limbs, hysteria, epilepsy, strange nervous affections, dyspepsia, hypochondria, spinal disease, pain and weakness in the back and limbs, costiveness--and, in fine, the long and dismal array of gastric, enteric, nervous, and spinal, affections, that are so complicated and difficult to manage.'
"Dr. J. A. Brown, of Providence, writes to the same source as follows:
" 'That it is an evil of vast magnitude, no physician who has been in the habit of tracing effects to causes, can for a moment doubt. I, sir, could tell of hundreds who labor under incurable maladies, produced by this practice; and I do not believe that I have a better faculty for obtaining such information than many others who are, and will be, dumb on this subject.'
"Another physician writes that 'seven-eighths of all the bodily ills and diseases of the people are caused, or greatly aggravated, by self-abuse, or excessive legal indulgence.'
"Nor is this all, nor the worst. The loss of this secretion is the loss of vitality itself. As must readily be apparent, it embodies the very quintessence of parentage, in order thereby to impart this quintessence of parents to offspring. To dwell on this point, however important, is unnecessary because so evident. Now it is a well-known principle of physiology, that when any organ is especially overtaxed, it robs the other parts of the system of vitality to supply its own taxation. Thus, overloading the stomach causes mental lassitude and muscular debility, because the stomach withdraws energy from the brain, the muscles, and wherever it can find it, to enable it to discharge its burden.
"Now overtax this secretion, and it withdraws energy from all the other parts to re-supply the drafts. Doing this frequently, diverts the energies permanently from the other organs to this. As those who get into the habit of being bled frequently, soon get full of blood, because they overtax the blood-manufacturing energies by this drain, so that an undue amount of vitality goes to blood; so, the frequent withdrawal of this condensed vital secretion, causes a drain from all the other parts and organs to re-supply it, and thus, frequent indulgence causes the very life's blood to run out thereat. Well has WISDOM said, 'Give not thy STRENGTH unto women.' And he who does, must expect to be weak every where else.
It inflames the whole system
"But, great as is the evil, especially to growing youth, consequent on this drain of vitality, that inflammation, always and necessarily consequent on excessive indulgence in all its forms, is much more prolific of both disease and suffering. Whoever indulges often, and weekly is often, in wedlock or out of it, will experience an unnatural heat, tension, tenderness, irritation, swelling, perhaps soreness, in these organs, of course resulting from their inflammation.
"The immediate cause of this inflammation is twofold. First, intense action, in its very nature, engenders inflammation, and what action more intense and inflammatory than this? Secondly, in order to insure intense action in this function, so as thereby highly to endow its product, a larger amount of nervous tissue is found ramified upon those parts of this apparatus more immediately brought into action, than upon almost any other portion of the body. This contrivance is indispensable to pleasure, and this, to the endowment of offspring. Nerve alone gives pleasure, but inflamed nerve gives pain, and pain proportionate to its quantity, and the degree of inflammation. Now, frequent action necessarily inflames, and this both weakens these organs, and engenders disease in them, and throughout the system. It fills the whole being, mental and physical, full of wild, excited, preternatural, irregular, abnormal, painful action. And inflammation thus caused, is harder to be reached, and more difficult to be subdued, than disease of any other portion of the body; because, while inflammation of the lungs, of the heart, of the stomach, of the bowels, muscles, head, etc., can easily be reached through the intestinal canal, or else by external application, diseases of these organs, especially in women, can be reached or cured only with great difficulty.
"We have seen that excess produces inflammation, particularly in these organs. Now, inflammation, in its very nature, proportionally weakens and destroys. This law of organization is too well known to require proof or illustration. Excessive indulgence, of whatever kind, necessarily inflames, and therefore weakens and diseases the sexual apparatus; and hence that falling of the womb, fluor albus, and other common female complaints, as well as prostration, or pendency, or irritation, or priapism, or gonorrhoea, etc., of males, which excessive indulgence always and necessarily creates. Nor, once effectually impaired, does this apparatus ever fully regain its former tone and power. As with a dislocated joint, or affection of the stomach, or lungs, slighter, and still slighter, occasions of disease renew the chronic complaint, so indulgence, otherwise not injurious, now renews the disease, and re-impairs the health, besides enfeebling both this function and its product.
"Allow here a single remark relative to the effect of indulgence, whether promiscuous, matrimonial, or solitary, upon offspring. It has been seen that power of sexual passion contributes to the endowment of offspring, and its feebleness leaves them proportionally the less endowed. Now nature has provided for the retention of this secretion till the action and pleasure of this function rise higher and higher, and become most exalted prior to its discharge, in order that this condensation of energy and function may be imparted to offspring.
"Now frequent indulgence allows it to escape prematurely, or before this action rises to its highest pitch, and thus prevents that pleasure of its subject so essential to the endowment of offspring. Indulgence even goes so far sometimes as to cause involuntary emissions, or at least on slight incentives, which of course weakens both the pleasure and the product of this function. Thus excessive indulgence cuts off the very pleasure sought, by diseasing its apparatus.
It deteriorates the sexual characteristics
"We have seen that over-indulgence, in all its forms, plants disease in the sexual apparatus. Now if this disease ended here, it would do great injury; but it goes farther, and does more. It deteriorates the sexual characteristics. That is, it impairs the manliness of the male, and the femininity of the female. Now the entire manhood of the man, all his nobleness, dignified aspirations, efficiency, and manliness, are created by, and depend upon, this his mental and physical sexuality. So do all the beauty, grace, refinement, purity, elegance, fascination, and charms of woman. This is certain. Now in and by this injury of the sexual apparatus, over-indulgence proportionally impairs the manhood and power of the former, and the beauty, sweetness, and charms of the latter. This result is necessary and universal.
"Destroy the sexual apparatus of animals by emasculation, and witness the effects. Compare the stallion with the gelding. What becomes of the proud and lofty prance, the noble bearing, the perfect form, the physical stamina, the free, bold, neighing, resolute, powerful horse? His neighing subdued, except as partially renewed by the arrival of the sexual season. His arched and thickened neck unstrung. His lofty prance exchanged for the steady jog. His mien humbled. His freed spirit chained. His physical power greatly subdued. No longer the horse proper, but lowered, mutilated, and the mere shadow of that noble animal. Compare the bull with the stag. You find results every way similar; as also by comparing the ram with the wether. What but the perfection of his sexual nature gives the bull his force and power of endurance over the ox, even enabling him to endure what would kill to oxen? Why can the former be easily tamed and subdued, but the latter never? Why a small bull whip a large ox? Why can the stud perform twice the labor of the gelding? The perfection of the sexual apparatus alone makes the difference. This principle applies throughout the animal kingdom, and is equally true of man. I once knew a eunuch, rendered so by his own hands. His voice, effeminate and hackled. His tones, pining, and whining, and complaining. The base, strong voice of manhood merged into the most diminutive manner of speaking imaginable. His look, sorrowful and hapless. His motions, slow and feeble. His very existence, a burden. And all because his sexuality, mental, as well as physical, was gone. No more the man! A mere thing!
"Now, by a law of things, whatever impairs the physical sexuality; and as over-indulgence does this, therefore, whoever gives way to this passion proportionally impairs his manhood, and becomes the ox or gelding; or else effaces the charms of the feminine. The man lays down his nobleness, dignity, power, and manhood, and is no longer bold, resolute, determined aspiring, dignified; but becomes depreciated, irresolute, undetermined, tamed, and conscious of his degradation. No longer comprehensive in planning, efficient in executing, correct in judgment, full of thought, strong in intellect, courteous in manner, noble in mien, and gallant to woman; but he becomes disheartened, uncertain in his plans, and inefficient in their execution, and a drone to himself and society. So too the female, deceased here, loses proportionally the amiableness and gracefulness of her sex, her sweetness of voice, disposition, and manner, her native enthusiasm, her beauty of face and form, her gracefulness and eloquence of carriage, her looks of love and interest in man, and to him, and becomes merged into a mongrel, neither male nor female, but marred by the defects of both, without possessing the virtues of either. This principle furnishes a very excellent hint to those who would retain or restore their beauty, to preserve or restore this apparatus--a means of promoting beauty much more effectual than all the padding, bustles, and fashionable attire in the world.
It diseases the whole system
"If the diseases consequent on this inflammation were confined to that apparatus in which it originates it would do great damage, as just seen, but it does incalculably more now; because it plants disease in the very bowels of the frame. We have also learned how perfectly reciprocal the relation existing between this apparatus and the heart, lungs, liver, stomach, kidneys, secretions, excretions, and each and all the vital organs and functions, in order thereby to propagate them all. Hence, whatever diseases it, thereby diseases them also. Disease in no other organ is equally prolific of disease in all the others. This is the physical citadel of health or of suffering, by capturing which you take all the others; and they captured, life itself surrenders to death. Common parlance designates some clouds as 'weather-breeders.' This is a disease-breeder--a true Pandora's box, the opening of which engenders all sorts and degrees of pains and sufferings 'that flesh is heir to.' Dr. Woodward, than whose opinion none is more entitled to consideration, remarks concerning it as follows;
" 'Consumption, spinal distortions, weak and painful eyes, weak stomachs, nervous headaches, and a host of other diseases, mark its influences upon the one; loss of memory and the power of application, insanity, and idiotism, show its devastating effects upon the other.
" 'In the spring of 1837, I was consulted by the father of a young woman who had, for four years, been in the worst possible condition of health. She had consulted many eminent physicians, who had prescribed remedies and regimen for her without benefit. On first seeing the patient, I was impressed that the cause of her illness had not been understood, which had rendered all remedies unavailing. Upon inquiring of the patient, I found that she had been the victim of self-pollution. I cautioned her to abandon the practice, prescribed some remedies, and saw her no more.
" 'More than a year from the time of seeing her, I heard directly from her parent, who sent me word that she had entirely recovered her health and energy of mind; and that my prescriptions had entirely cured her.'
It impairs digestion and circulation
"It thus robs the system of its required nourishment. Vertigo and heaviness about the stomach, etc., necessarily follow this excess, because it robs the digestive apparatus of the energy required to carry forward this function. It produces a gnawing, fainting, distressed, sunken, gone sensation, along the whole elementary canal, as a frightful cause of dyspepsia, heartburn, etc., and thus robs the system of its very life and soul.
"An isolated example: Many years ago, an intelligent, welleducated man was brought to the lunatic asylum in Hartford, the victim of self-abuse, and rendered nearly idiotic thereby, as well as raving perpetually for food, which he would consume voraciously most of the time, if allowed. His keepers, however, refused food unless he would stop the practice. The struggle was terrible. His rampant appetite, aided by hunger, finally compelled him to desist, and he recovered.
"Nor does the heart escape. Indeed, it suffers among the foremost; as those will recognize experimentally who are at all subject to weakness, or palpitation, or enlargement, or uneasiness, of this organ. Nor can those thus affected indulge much without essentially increasing their malady. The kidneys, in particular, are diseased thereby, and hence it causes the gravel.
It deranges the brain and nervous system
"But its ravages on the brain and nervous system embody its most terrible consequences. To behold one physical organ after another fall a victim to this devastating passion, as house after house is consumed by the devastating flames, is indeed terrible.
"To lose limb after limb of the body, or large portions of the heart, or lungs, or sight, or hearing, etc., is irreparable, and inexpressible by words; but to lose one after another of the mental faculties is inexpressibly greater, because these constitute the man. As Watts replied impromptu to Mrs. Rowe, when she rallied him for his personal diminutiveness--
" 'Could I in stature reach the pole,
Or grasp creation in my span,
I'd still be measured by my soul;
The MIND's the stature of the man.'
"Whatever enfeebles or deranges the brain and nerves, thereby impairs the very personality and entity of the man himself. Now, we have already seen that this indulgence is most exciting, exhausting, and irritating, to the brain and nervous system; that excess produces inflammation and disease; and also that nervous and cerebral disease both produces depravity, and renders its victims most miserable, where there is no other cause or occasion. Behold in this 'wheel within a wheel'--in the fact that this indulgence inflames the whole body, and especially the brain and nervous system--the reason why this excess causes more insanity than anything else except intemperance, which it generally accompanies. Of the 128 males in the McLean Lunatic Asylum, in Charlestown, Mass., in 1838, twenty-four were brought there by a single form of this vice! The report of the Worcester Insane Hospital for 1836, rates intemperance as the most prolific cause of insanity, and this passion as the second, of which it then had twenty-six victims. In 1838, of its 199 male patients, 42, or almost one-fourth, were the victims of solitary indulgence. A superintendent of a French lunatic asylum, says it 'is more frequently than is imagined, the cause of insanity, particularly among the rich.' 'No cause,' says Dr. Woodward, 'is more influential in producing insanity. The records of the institutions give an appalling catalogue of cases attributed to it.'
"But, when it does not go so far as to induce complete idiocy or insanity, it so far vitiates the nervous system as to leave its subjects completely miserable--self-abuse particularly so. Facts, almost without number, completely demonstrate the physiological law that disordered nerves produce mental misery; and as this passion deranges the nervous system, we see why its subjects are nervous, fidgety, easily agitated, fearful, afflicted with terrible dreams, melancholic, depressed in spirits, and most wretched, as well as partly beside themselves. In describing its effects, Dr. Adam Clarke writes thus:
" 'The sin of self-pollution is one of the most destructive evils ever practised by fallen man. In many respects it is several degrees worse than common whoredom, and has in its train more awful consequences. It excites the powers of nature to undue action, and produces violent secretions, which necessarily and speedily exhaust the vital principle and energy; hence the muscles become flaccid and feeble, the tone and natural action of the nerves relaxed and impeded, the understanding confused, the memory oblivious, the judgment perverted, the will indeterminate and wholly without energy to resist; the eyes appear languishing and without expression, and the countenance vacant; appetite ceases, for the stomach is incapable of performing its proper office; nutrition fails; tremors, fears, and terrors, are generated; and thus the wretched victim drags out a miserable existence, till, superannuated, even before he had time to arrive at man's estate, with a mind often debilitated even to a state of idiotism, his worthless body tumbles into the grave, and his probation expires by acts of his own commission.
" 'Reader, this is no caricature, nor are the colorings overcharged in this shocking picture. Worse woes than my pen can relate, I have witnessed in those addicted to this fascinating, unnatural, and most destructive of crimes. If thou hast entered into the snare, flee from the destruction, both of body and mind that awaits thee! God alone can save thee. Advice, warnings, threatenings, increasing debility of body, mental decay, checks of conscience, expostulations of judgment, and medical assistance, will all be lost on thee; God, and God alone, can save thee from an evil which has in its issue the destruction of thy body, and the final perdition of thy soul.'
" 'Facts,' etc., to 'Young Men,' narrates the history of a young man of high talents and standing, promoted to an important post of honor, which he once filled satisfactorily to his constituents, and who had amassed considerable wealth, and was engaged to be married, as follows:
" 'But his health began to fail. His constant complaint was--"my nerves are weak"--"my hands tremble"--"my wrists ache"--"my knees are weak"--"I have bad dreams," etc. He was advised to take outdoor exercise, ride horseback, and take strengthening remedies, with a nourishing diet. But all this did no good. The symptoms increased. He soon became dyspeptic and hypochondriac; and then followed, not only the aches and pains that were consequent upon such a state of the body, but all those ten thousand imaginary physical and mental diseases that flesh is heir to. Every remedy was used, but to no purpose. He gave up his business, broke off his engagement with his lady, sought every opportunity to hide himself from the gaze of his friends and the world, and seemed to be determined to die.
" 'Thus he remained a most wretched devotee to the suicidal practice of self-pollution. Professional advice, and that of his friends, who knew the cause of his sickness, had no effect upon him. Sometimes, indeed, he would desist for a few days, but it seemed to be only to gather new strength, that he might pursue his ruinous career with greater energy. About two years ago, he was attacked with palsy of the whole of one side, and which continues to this day. Nocturnal emissions, priapisms, gleet, or a watery discharge from the urethra, and aches and pains, with frightful visions, horrid dreams, and idiotic manners, all now present themselves as the sad result of this disgusting, criminal, and souldestroying habit. He is now a mere pest to his friends; and though but comparatively few persons are aware of the cause of his wretchedness, it is nevertheless true, and can be attributed to none other than the indulgence in solitary vice.
" 'Other cases might be referred to, if I had time, of a less revolting nature; for when the indulgence is only occasional, of course the effects are not so alarming. But even then the effects are bad--for there cannot be a single indulgence in this way, without producing injury to a certain extent.'
"Of another, it narrates thus:
" 'A few years ago, I had under my care and instruction a most promising youth. His talents were of the highest order, and he bade fair to take a prominent stand among the first scholars of our country. He entered college, and was considered one of the first scholars of his class. It was soon perceived that his constitution was breaking down. Medicine did him but little good. Soon after he graduated, he became melancholy, and finally was deranged; and his friends were under the necessity of conveying him to a hospital. It was not until this event that the cause of his complaint was ascertained. It was evident that he had been in the constant habit of criminally indulging himself in secret. In a few months, he partially recovered, and visited his friends. He has,however, been sent to the hospital again. He is a most melancholy object, for in his lucid moments he is demented, a mere wreck of that superior genius which he once was. When I meet him in the street, I find that idiotic, lascivious smile, which is common in those cases where the individual has been in the constant habit of beastly indulgence.
" 'A young man was under my care from one of the southern cities. He was an object of pity; he had become so accustomed to his vicious indulgence, that he has been known even at the dinner table to practice it. He was extremely irritable, and would often be taken in a fit (spasms), which would continue for hours. His physician did not understand his case, nor was I sensible, at the time, that his bad habits had produced his partial insanity. He would often disclose some of his practices to his associates, when he was insane, which he would much regret when he had recovered his reason. I have understood that, since his return to his friends, he has but partially recovered. He is demented, and is unfit for the common avocations of life.
" 'Another young man, who was under my care not long since, is obliged to leave his studies, and is just going into a decline; and self-pollution is the cause. I have conversed with him, and he is sensible of his error, but I fear too late.'
"A letter to Mrs. Gove, narrating its writer's experience, describes its effects on the mind as follows:
" 'At about twelve years of age, my health began to fail; I became dyspeptic and nervous. I often awoke in the morning bathed in tears; and the most indescribable and horrible sinking of spirits was my portion during the forenoon. If I committed any little mistake or fault, the recollection of it would haunt me for days, and make me superlatively wretched. I became pale as death, weak, feeble, and emaciated. I had severe palpitation of the heart, pain in the side, and many symptoms of consumption. I had also, much of the time, distressing pain in the head. I had much dizziness, and my sight would often become entirely obscured, especially when I stooped and rose quickly.'
" 'It renders them,' says an English author, 'stupid, dull, and melancholy, and destroys all their vivacity, cheerfulness, and health; it brings on consumptions, weakness, barrenness, and all that dreadful train of nervous complaints, which make them timid, whimsical, and ridiculous.'
"Another patient writes thus:
" 'My enthusiasm is sensibly diminished; my perceptions are very dull; the fire of imagination much less vivid; every passing event appears to me like a dream; I have less power of conception, and less presence of mind. In a word, I feel as if I am wasting away, although my sleep, appetite, and countenance, are good.'
" 'The empire which this odious practice gains over the senses,' says Tissot, 'is beyond expression. No sooner does this uncleanness get possession of the heart, than it pursues its votaries everywhere, and governs them at all times and in all places. Upon the most serious occasions, and in the solemn acts of religion, they find themselves transported with lustful conceptions and desires, which take up all their thoughts.'
"Dr. Woodward gives the following from a letter written by a patient:
" 'Having endured so long under this blighting, withering curse, my constitution, naturally very strong, is broken down, and my mind, as well as body, completely enervated. I am haunted day and night with lascivious thoughts and dreams; suspicious of my friends, and disgusted with myself. My memory has lost its power--unable to fix my attention--my mind is filled with terrible forebodings--fear of insanity, and at times it has cost me a continual effort to retain my reason. It is with difficulty that I walk, or stand, or even sit, erect. An inclination to lie down and sleep, which desire I am sensible I have indulged too much--my sleep never refreshes me--I rise in the morning weak and weary, to drag out another miserable day. Oh! how often have I wished for death, or rather oblivion, or anything to terminate my woes. I have of late been much annoyed with constant little twitchings or spasms in various parts of my body, and frequently my face. Would to God I had known what I now know when first tempted to this health, life, and soul-destroying vice. I feel that I cannot hold out much longer.'
"Behold, in the following auto-biography of a patient, the mental anguish and derangement this practice engenders. After saying that he commenced the practice at about fourteen years of age, and had kept it up at intervals for many years, he writes:
" 'During the whole of this time, I have suffered the most intense and unmitigated misery. Although blessed by nature with an excellent constitution, and with a kindly, cheerful disposition, I have become dyspeptic, gloomy, and unsociable. I am wretchedly timid and irresolute, my mind very weak, and filled with imaginary terrors. In fine, I have suffered so much in body and mind, and seeing no prospect of being restored to health and usefulness, that I am sunk in despair, and am daily contemplating SUICIDE. It is the anguish my death would cause my mother and sister, whom I devotedly love, and for whom I would wish to live, and whom I would wish to maintain, that mainly prevents.'
"But why detail more? These are the constitutional effects of this sin. Behold the MIND a wreck--the SOUL undone!
It engenders depravity in all its forms
"But, all this, most terrible as it is, is not the worst. Amativeness being situated in the midst of the animal organs, and this indulgence tending necessarily to inflame it, its inflammation of course inflames, diseases, and perverts them also. Section three of 'Love' shows that the morbid, painful, diseased action of the propensities constitutes depravity; and this section shows that this excess diseases both the cerebellum and the body, with both of which the animal propensities are so intimately related that whatever deranges the former, thereby perverts the latter, and this causes depravity. Or thus: Excessive indulgence inflames the sexual organs, the whole body, and Amativeness, located in the cerebellum, in particular, and this inflames and depraves the whole animal group of organs, and thereby creates sin in all its forms. Corresponding with, and explained by, this, is the FACT that lust, the world over, is the concomitant and parent of all other sins. In what portions of our cities, towns, and villages, is perpetrated the most wickedness? Wherever are congregated the votaries of Venus. Where will groggeries be found the most abundant, the most frequented? In the streets and lanes of wantonness. Where are you most liable to be robbed? There also. And by whom? Its inhabitants. What but prostitution could make woman, aye, amiable woman, swear, and lie, and cheat, and drink, and carouse, and rob, and even murder? In what part of Boston was that recent tragical murder of Mrs. Bickford committed? In Old Town, the 'Five Points' of that goodly city. By whom? A libertine. On whom? A lewd woman. In short, the dens of prostitution are everywhere the dens of crime in all its forms, in all its aggravation. And what is true of these masses, is true of those individuals which compose them. Who are our defaulters, our swindlers, our gamblers, etc.? Frequenters of lewd houses, always. No equal incentive to dishonesty and criminality exists. Fortunes are yearly stolen by clerks, agents, etc., and covered by false entries, simply to obtain the means of gratifying this passion. How much, the judgment alone can reveal. Though intemperance will soon run a man down, and wring his last cent from him to feed those fatal fires which are consuming soul and body, yet it is a pigmy compared with this giant robber. It will drain the last cent, and then pursue its victim night and day till he becomes literally desperate, and is almost compelled to lie, steal, forge, rob, ANY AND EVERY thing to procure the wages of this sin. Do as great a business as he may, he rarely becomes rich, but see how many fortunes it has squandered! No one who "goes after strange women" can be good, honest, and true; but he who does, will commit almost any other form of sin. This passion will sow the seeds of depravity in the purest of souls, and convert those most irreproachable into demons. This is staple truth, apply it where you will.
"Moralists! behold in this relation of perverted sexuality to universal depravity, your first work of reform. As long as this passion is thus uncontrolled and perverted, so long will all other forms of depravity be rife, and all forms of virtue be trampled in the dust! Ministers may preach till doomsday against any and all other vices without effect, till they preach moral purity, and in all its forms. It is a matter of perfect surprise, that so few ministers preach against this sin in any of its forms, especially against self-abuse; but most of them, though posted on the moral watch-towers of society, are 'dead dogs,' that 'will not bark,' touching this, the very key-stone of the arch of depravity. Is it not high time that some moral champion should stand forth to proclaim this vital truth? Lawyers will not do it, nor doctors, except a few noble Woodwards; nor ministers. Shall then this monster be left undisturbed to feed on the physical and mental carcasses of his prey? God forbid! If the ministerial profession will so far prove recreant to their high, moral trust, and the other professions follow their example of silence, help must come from some other quarter; for this age of reform must begin reformation here. And the author is free to confess, that an overwhelming desire to prevent iniquity in its other forms, as well as this, and by sanctifying and properly directing this propensity, to promote general moral excellence and obviate general corruption, mainly dedicated these pages. He wishes to aid in rendering after generations better by nature--more intellectual, more pure and holy in soul, and elevated in aspiration, and by this work, to stay licentiousness, public and private, by showing the superiority of moral purity over sinful propensity, in order thereby to promote moral purity and all other virtues, on the one hand, and on the other, to prevent this vice, and thereby all other forms of human depravity and woe.
It perpetuates and re-augments itself
"We have seen that excess begets inflammation, and that inflammation creates desire. Hence every new indulgence only reaugments the cravings of this propensity. As an inflammation of the stomach causes a morbid hankering after food, the gratification of which still further increases both the disease and the craving, so excessive sexual indulgence fevers these organs so that they call still more loudly for gratification, every new indulgence of which re-augments the inflammation and consequently the power of passion, till, like the letting out of waters, it rises and rushes till life itself is emptied out thereat, and both body and mind swept on to remediless destruction and woe! Indulgence is fuel to these already consuming fires of perdition. This propensity being to the sexual apparatus precisely what appetite is to the stomach, since as eating, so far from satisfying the ravenous cravings of the dyspeptic, only increases them, by re-inflaming the stomach; so sensual indulgence first inflames the sexual apparatus, and this re-increases both disease and desire till the entire system is drained of energy, and its victim dies.
"This passion, inflames by indulgence, becomes the horseleech of life and happiness, crying perpetually, louder and louder, 'Give, give, Give, GIVE,' but never enough; or the gluttonous tape-worm, the more it is fed, the more insatiate its ravages, till, after having devoured all the other powers and faculties of its miserable victim, it ends only in a death of all deaths the most horrible. Like the falling, perhaps, of an icicle on Mount Blanc, which gathers size and force as it descends, and now rolls heavily and rapidly down the steep sides of yonder towering cliff, anon bounds from peak to peak, sweeping their snowy sides and tearing up huge trees and rocks in its resistless course, till, leaping yonder yawning precipice, it plunges into the deep abyss, dashing to atoms both itself and all its prey, scattering ruin and death in all its course.
"Nor does this principle govern one form of sensual indulgence merely, but all its forms. It is inherent in all forms, and appertains alike to matrimonial, promiscuous, and personal indulgence in all their stages. Animals, one and all, before their first indulgence, experience only a moderate power of this impulse; but afterwards become uncontrollable. The less it is exercised, the more easily can it be held in check.
"Beware, then, O youth! how you unchain this roaring lion till walled in by wedlock; else propensity will haunt and goad you night and day, clamorous for indulgence, yet never satisfied till your ruin is complete. Indulge but once, and you will have no peace of your life, but will be dashed hither and yon, with those waves of passion into which "one false step" plunges you. If you have no regard for the sin committed, yet regard your own subsequent peace and happiness of life.
"Mark; we do not put this matter on its moral turpitude, but on its necessarily consequent evils and sufferings; first, because the latter involves the former, and is the cause or rationale of all sin--the reason why sin is sinful, as well as the measure of the sinfulness of sin, and because we thus appeal to the two strongest, and even the governing, motives of human nature; namely, first, to its love of happiness; and, secondly, to its dread of suffering. Not that it is not most sinful. It is morally wrong in exact proportion to its miseries which we have just seen to be so frightful.
The effects of promiscuous indulgence, matrimonial excess, and self-abuse, compared
"Thus far, our inquiries have related to the constitutional effects of excessive sexual indulgence in its collective capacity, or indiscriminately in all its forms. But, this hydra monster assumes many forms, three of which deserve consideration.
Licentiousness
"That promiscuous indulgence is most sinful, is evident from that terrible penalty affixed to its perpetration. To be eaten up by piecemeal, with sores and ulcers,nauseating and loathsome beyond description--to lose bone, and muscle, and nerve, by inches, and literally be eaten up alive, besides being simultaneously tortured with agony the most excruciating mortals can endure, affixes nature's seal of proportional moral turpitude upon its cause. Consequences thus direful show that their cause must be a sin proportionally aggravated. Quacks may essay to cure it, but its virulent poison still lurks in the veins for life. Calomel may give immediate relief, but the grave alone can entirely eradicate it. Sin, ye who will; but suffer, ye who sin. God is just, and but visits his violated law with mete retribution.
"Nor does this curse of curses cease with its author, but is justly entailed upon his children, and his children's children, 'unto the third and fourth generations.' See yonder maimed and hobbling object of pity, his limbs distorted, his joints dislocated and racked with pain, his life tormented with running sores, his mind feeble, and passions ungovernable! All this is but the wages of his father's licentiousness. A physician once remarked to the author, that a more prolific cause of scrofula, consumptions, and kindred affections did not probably exist, than this sin of parents; adding, that it often broke out two or three generations down, and could rarely be eradicated from descendants. Oh! how great the crime of thus cursing posterity, instead of blessing it with all the endowments conferred by virtuous love!
"Nor do many know how prevalent this disease is in its various forms. Its victims keep their own secret as long as possible, and doctor themselves, except when their case becomes desperate; and then confide it only to their medical adviser, whose very profession forswears him to keep the secret. Oh! how many thousands of our young men have ruined their constitutions, and become invalids for life, solely by means of this disease, or attempts to cure it. Indeed, its prevalence at the Sandwich Islands actually threatens the extinction of that nation; which, at its present rate of mortality, it is computed to effect in about sixty years! And if it goes on to increase in the ratio of its past progression, it will ultimately cut off our race itself !
"The fact that SEVERAL THOUSAND COPIES of a little work of less than twenty pages, on the cure of venereal diseases, are sold every month, at one dollar per copy, and that other works of this class sell in proportion, shows conclusively that there are several thousand new victims every month! No patient wants more than a single work, yet TWENTY THOUSAND PER MONTH does not equal the sales of these works, and of course falls far short of the number of victims, for none but venereal patients will pay thus dear for so small a book, of no manner of interest to those not thus afflicted. All this, besides all those who indulge with other than harlots by profession! Almost incredible, but nevertheless true!
"We thus see that nature, as well as the Bible, condemns licentiousness; so that disbelievers in the latter are yet bound by nature's inflexible laws to continence, except in wedlock. But a point thus self-evident, need not be urged. Beware then, O passionate youth, how you commit this sin! Even though you neither 'fear God nor regard man, yet at least regard your own happiness, and induce not so terrible a curse!
Matrimonial excess
"But this is not the only form of sin assumed by this propensity. It invades married life, and sows the seeds of misery within the hallowed pale of wedlock. Reference is not now had to those who, though married, seek foreign indulgence; but to those who know their own legal companion only. This will surprise many who are married, because they think themselves entitled to any desired amount of indulgence. Far otherwise. Nature cares nothing, knows nothing about human enactments. Excessive indulgence between husband and wife produces all the consequences shown in the last chapter to result from excessive Amativeness. A miserable victim of connubial excess is hardly less miserable than the victim of licentiousness. A newly-married husband once called upon a medical friend of the author to prescribe for what he supposed to be venereal disease, contracted from his wife. Soon after, she called on the same errand; both accusing each other of having given the disease. He told both that their hymeneal excess had inflamed and diseased both, and prescribed moderation.
But, what stamps effectually the seal of nature's reprobation on excessive matrimonial indulgence, is its destruction of the health of woman. Is it not a most prolific cause of those distressing female complaints which bury half our married women prematurely, and seriously impair most of the balance? Testify, Drs. Sherwood, Banning, Hollick, Benjamin, and others, in this line of practice; are not these complaints alarmingly prevalent, and occasioned mainly by excessive indulgence? Do not thousand of our women die annually in consequence? Speak out, ye weakly, nervous wives, now dying by wretched inches of these diseases, and say whether your sufferings were not caused mainly, and have not been aggravated to their present painfulness, by the frequency, the fury, the almost goatishness, of your husbands' demands? I say fury, because though frequency is bad, yet harshness is worse; nor do husbands always consider how exceedingly tender, and how liable to consequent inflammation and disease, this apparatus. Many a husband has buried more wives than one, killed outright, ignorantly, yet effectually, by the brutality of this passion. Reader, if thou knowest none such, thou knowest not the cause of all the deaths that transpire around thee! And yet, the pulpit, the press, the lecture room, are silent in view of this vast, this wicked waste of life--of even the infinitely valuable life of woman!
"And tens of thousands of those whom it does not kill, it nevertheless despoils, by impairing both their sexual organs, and their health, as well as minds. More: It cuts off the very pleasure sought. As over-eating diminishes appetite, and thus curtails the gustatory pleasure sought, so excess here engenders those diseases which cut off this very pleasure. By causing the prolapsus uteri, albus, etc., it renders this intercourse utterly repugnant mentally, and painful physically; thus inducing the penalty in the direct line of the transgression.
It deteriorates woman in the estimation of man
"Besides, lust carries with itself the feeling of degradation. He who indulges frequently, even with his lawful wife, cannot but associate her in his mind with this debased feeling to which she administers. He first debases her by his brutality, and then despises her for being debased. It is a law of mind that this excess should produce contempt for its partner. Reader, did you ever hear the libertine speak well of woman as a sex? This fact is apparent; and you may always measure the sensuality of a man by his respect for the sex, and his moral purity, by his estimation of woman. This is a perfect thermometer of moral purity. Its reasons are obvious. First, rogues suspect all mankind of being rogues; liars, of being deceptive, and the sensual, of sensuality. Secondly, he has been mainly conversant with woman as a sexual thing, and not as a pure, refined, and affectionate being. Her sexuality mainly is what he has noticed, and this he detests in himself, and therefore in her.
"Woman thus abused, also soon comes to feel herself humbled, broken down, and sunk in the scale of self-respect, by being put to so low a use. And let the sensual husband remember that knowing ones can read his treatment of her in this respect by these and kindred signs--that is, in her downcast, self-degraded looks and mien. But over this saddening picture of wo, let us draw the curtain of silence, while we shed tears of pity over her sufferings. Woman fallen! Her loveliness engulfed in the fiery sea of lust! Her angelic purity and perfection converted into corruption! The angel become the Animal--a mere sexual thing! And all by violating a plain law of nature. Mete punishment for so sensual a sin!
"Much has of late been said as regards the elevation of woman on the one hand, and her natural inferiority on the other. Without disturbing this mooted question, further than to say that she is equally perfect with man in her sphere, which is equally elevated with his, that she is as perfect as the God of nature could render her--allow special attention to be called to the one specific cause of her disrepute. It is man's sensuality. How does the Turk regard woman? As a mere thing, destitute of a soul, and of all intrinsic merit. Now look at the one animal end to which he puts her, and put the two together. Wherefore the harem? Simply to feed his sensuality. And this very sensuality breeds this contempt for its object. The same holds true of all mankind, and governs individuals as well as masses. The libertine always despises his 'bird' after he has sated his passion, and because of such indulgence. Sensual indulgence begets disgust for its object. This is a law of mind, and is as true in wedlock as out of it. Hence, other things being equal, in proportion as a man indulges sensually with woman as a sex, does he despise the sex, or as an individual, does he underrate her individually. Nor, say what you will, can woman ever be raised to her true dignity, or be properly appreciated, till licentiousness is superseded by pure love. Moral purity will elevate woman in exact proportion to its prevalence, while licentiousness, in and of itself, and by virtue of its own inherent nature, sinks her in the scale of valuation in exact proportion as it rises. This is cardinal truth, and shows those who would labor for the elevation of woman, where to begin, and what obstacle alone prevents.
"We might mention many more evils that grow out of matrimonial prostitution, but are not these amply sufficient to stamp it as most infamous in its nature, because most direful in its consequences? Indeed, I regard its magnitude as scarcely less than that of promiscuous indulgence, because its evils are substantially the same, and scarcely less aggravated, and partly because so much more prevalent. It offers much greater facilities and temptations. It costs nothing in and of itself--though many a husband has paid out more in the form of doctors' and nurses' bills, etc., than his licentious neighbor has for promiscuous indulgence. It is almost universal in married life, and is burying its victims ten to one faster than its twin sister, promiscuous intercourse. Mere sensual indulgence as such, in wedlock or out of it, in and of itself, sensualizes the mind, debases the feelings, and engenders depravity in all its other forms. It is fire to the nervous system, which, diseased, irritates all the propensities, and depraves the entire being! Mark, ye husbands whose demands are frequent, the increased irritability, and fretfulness, and crossness, of your wives the next day, and learn from these principles both the cause and cure.
"We must not omit to mention the double injury occasioned by indulging while she is fulfilling her maternal relations. At these periods she almost always loathes it--proof enough that it is then wrong. Besides, it withdraws that vital energy required by her precious charge. It also sensualizes the charge; it partaking by sympathy with its mother's feelings. Nor have I a doubt but that the seeds of much of the sensuality of mankind are sown by parental indulgence before birth. Then, at least, should the mother's mind be kept as pure and elevated as possible, and her physical stamina promoted, not drained off to feed a sensual passion.
"Husbands, be entreated to mark well this entire chapter. In this particular you are mainly in fault. Your wives could not impose upon you in this matter if they would, and rarely would if they could. But do you not often insist on compliance, and almost compel it when very disagreeable to them? Oh! be not thus cruel! Wait at least for reciprocity, and then guard carefully against all pain and injury. Would that these truths might reach every married pair in Christendom!
Private sensuality
"But we have not reached all the evils, if the worst form, of 'excessive and perverted Amativeness.' However prevalent both licentiousness proper and legalized licentiousness, private fornication I regard as at least equal to either, and much more prevalent than the first named. Our youth by wretched thousands,aye millions, too conscientious to violate the literal law of chastity, seek in solitude that same gratification which constitutes sensuality itself. The two differ in nothing except in the substitution of an imaginary partner for a real one--in the complete absence of that love which alone can sanctify this indulgence, and in its being all sensuality, as well as, if possible, a still more unnatural and effectual violation of nature's laws. Do not both consist equally, in warp and woof, of sensuality? Is not the same propensity indulged in both? Are not the same feelings exercised, and in the same way, saving that its partner, so indispensable to both, is imaginary here, but real there? Is not the kind of gratification sought and afforded alike in both? Are not both precisely alike in debasing the character? The same feelings, the same organs, the same action in these organs, the same evacuations, except that private prostitution is necessarily more completely gross and lustful, as well as more injurious to the organs exercised; besides the far greater number of its subjects, and the far greater frequency of its indulgence. Is licentiousness debasing and polluting to the soul, and is not self-pollution even more so? Does it not create even a greater degree of shame, and self-abhorrence, and vulgarity? Does the former disease the sexual apparatus, and does not the latter equally, probably more? Does the former often produce impotency, and does not the latter much more frequently? Does the former derange the nervous system, and does not the latter equally, and fill the entire system full to bursting with a wild, hurried, fevered excitement, which rouses every animal passion, unstrings every nerve, and produces complete frustration and confusion? Does the former drain the system of animal energy, and waste the very essence of its vitality, and does not the latter equally rob every organ of the body, every faculty of the mind, of that vital energy by which alone it lives and acts?
"In short, it is hardly possible to name an evil which appertains to the former, which does not also characterize the latter; whilst the latter by being so much more accessible, subjecting its possessor to no expense (but that of life), and no shame, because perpetrated in secret, is therefore the more widespread, frequent, and ruinous. Nor is it considered a sin (shame on those pretended moral watchmen who do not denounce it), and therefore not opposed by the terrors of conscience. Nor does that almost insuperable barrier of native modesty created in the soul of every well-constituted youth against licentiousness, avail much here,because its natural stimulant, the presence of the other sex, is not present to bring it into action. It is also practiced at a much earlier age, and while the system is yet immature, and all the strength required for growth, thus sapping the constitution in its infancy, and hence the more completely irreparable and fatal.
"If asked my serious opinion as to the comparative evils of these two forms of 'excessive or perverted Amativeness,' considered collectively, as working the greatest ruin in our age and nation, and causing the greatest amount of suffering and wo, I should answer unhesitatingly, as the result of my extensive observation and mature conviction, PRIVATE FORNICATION- TEN TO ONE! And this is substantially the opinion of all who have examined this subject. If asked which I should prefer a child of mine to practice (O merciful God! deliver me from so dreadful a dilemma), my unequivocal answer would be, 'Rather let my dear child DIE, be it even by revolting suicide. Any other cup of bitterness sooner!' Nothing, O fond parent, can render your beloved offspring more completely wretched!
Signs of sensuality in its various forms
" 'Satan never keeps secrets,' 'Murder will out.' And so will sensuality. We can tell the rake, and designate the wanton; and say truly, who has known the other sex, and how; as well as who seeks solitary gratification, and who is pure. The signs of all these things come to the surface, and cannot be disguised.
"To transfer all these signs to paper is impossible; nor can a fraction of them be fully given without too much digression. Many of them, the 'natural language' of the faculties discloses, which a phrenologist alone can fully understand. If, by casting her eyes over a congregation, the lewd woman can easily select her patrons, why cannot we also discern them? We can, by the following, among other indices:
"Carrying the hands frequently to these organs by way of changing their position; or sitting with the former partly inclosing the latter; because the latter, being inflamed by overaction, are uneasy, and the former are carried to, and move them about, to give relief. Such, if married, may know only their own companion, but it will be both lustful and excessive. If unmarried, they either abuse themselves, or else seek foreign indulgence. Which, may be distinguished by a slight difference in a certain position often assumed by each, which the natural language of Amativeness perfectly explains.
"The amorous man has also a lascivious expression of the eyes and lips, and always manifests sexual curiosity when he observes females; and often turns to look at them. Or, when anything is said about the other sex, he acts or laughs as if something very curious, or wanton, or vulgar, had been said, and relishes it, because he looks at every thing through glasses of lust. Or else he unequivocally condemns and denounces every thing pertaining to this subject, especially by way of obviating this evil, as foul and filthy; because to him it is so. A rake can easily be marked by these and kindred signs.
"Reader, is it expedient to give the indices of wantonness in woman? Yet they are equally, if not still more, apparent.
"The solitary libertine may be known, partly by these signs, and, in addition, by the following: In conversation, he never looks you full in the face; but averts his eyes, especially downward, as if ashamed of himself. He also avoids meeting the glances of females, yet steals every opportunity to look at them, and intently observes, particularly those portions which constitute and characterize the sex. Though very shy of females, and all in a tremor while in their presence, when others are by, yet when alone, he is forward and gross in his advances, and apt to take liberties; and is silly and sickish in their company, as if prompted by a mean passion, instead of being actuated by that love 'which maketh not ashamed.'
"Mark well this fundamental difference between the conduct of those who are actuated by true love, and by lust in any of its forms. Now, precisely this difference obtains touching the manners, carriage, expression, every thing, of his conduct towards woman whose amativeness is pure or perverted.
"The private sensualist may be further known by his pallid, bloodless countenance, and hollow, sunken, and half-ghastly eyes, the lids of which will frequently be tinged with red; while if his indulgence has been carried very far, he will have black and blue semi-circles under his eyes, and also look as if worn out, almost dead for want of sleep, yet unable to get it, etc. He will also have a half-wild, half-vacant stare, or half-lascivious, half-foolish smile, especially when he sees a female. He will also have a certain quickness, yet indecision, of manner; will begin to do this thing, then stoop and essay to do that, and then do what he first intended; and in such utterly insignificant matters as putting his hat here or there, etc. The same incoherence will characterize his expressions, and the same want of promptness mark all he does. Little things will agitate and fluster him. Nor will he be prompt, or resolute, or bold or forcible; but timid, afraid of his own shadow, uncertain, waiting to see what is best, and always in a hurry, yet hardly know what he is doing, or wants to do. Nor will he walk erect or dignified, as if conscious of his manhood and lofty in his aspirations, but will walk and move with a diminutive, cringing, sycophantic, inferior, mean, self-debased manner, as if depreciated and degraded in his own eyes; thus telling you perpetually by his shamed looks and sheepish manner that he has been doing something low, mean, contemptible and vulgar. His secret practices have impaired both his physical and mental manhood, and thereby effaced the nobleness and efficiency of the masculine, and deteriorated his soul, besides having ruined his body. Be entreated, O foolish and wicked, not thus to dethrone the man and enthrone the animal!
"He will, moreover, be dull of comprehension, incorrect, forgetful, heedless, full of blunders of all sorts, crude and inappropriate in his jokes, slow to take the hint, listless, inattentive, absent-minded, sad, melancholy, easily frightened, easily discouraged, wanting in clearness and point of idea, less bright than formerly, and altogether depreciated in looks and talents compared with what he would have been if he had never contracted this soul-and-body-ruining practice.
"Pain at or near the small of the back, is another dark symptom. It at least shows that the sexual apparatus is diseased, because the nerve from them enters the spinal column at this place, so that their inflammation renders it proportionally tender and painful. Sexual excess in any of its forms will give this pain. True, other causes may have deranged these organs, and given this pain, yet this is the great cause. Some victims of this passion have running sores in the small of the back, and are generally tender there.
"Many other signs evince carnality, yet these must suffice. Nor am I quite clear in giving these, because they will expose so many of my erring fellow-men, now unsuspected. Yet, again, such are dangerous, and ought to be exposed--at least, allowed to tell their own carnal story. Let every sensualist, especially private libertine, remember that he is marked and known, and read by all men who have eyes and know how to use them. This exposition is made, in part, to shame them out of degrading vice into moral purity and virtue.
Remedies
"Thus much of these evils. Next, their REMEDIES. All the penalties of nature's violated laws are not wholly incurable. A 'healing balm' is kindly furnished for such wounds as are not mortal. Though it may be impossible, after these evils have become aggravated for their subject to be as healthy and happy as he would have been if he had never sinned, yet our merciful Physician has furnished at hand both palliatives and restoratives, by the judicious and thorough use of which, he may become as sound in body and as strong in mind, as he ever has been; perhaps better, because he is yet immature. When the consequences of this vice have not gone so far as to impair or destroy the structure, a comparative cure is attainable; and even though the organization itself is seriously affected, yet, as nature restores a broken bone, or flesh wound, so here, she will often repair breaches apparently irreparable. Though, as a broken bone or a sprained joint is more liable to subsequent injury than if it had never been impaired, yet, as long and as far as life and constitution remain, they hold out the blessed promise of recovery and happiness. Unfortunate reader, however foolish and sinful you may have been, never despair; first, because discouragement greatly impedes cure; and secondly, because the constitutional tendency of your disease is to render you more gloomy and disheartened than you need be. Be it that your case is bad, you regard it as much worse than it really is. If it were fatal, you would be now literally dying. The flag of truce is yet flying. Because you have entered the broad road, you are not compelled to go down to final ruin. The door of escape is yet open. Few cases are desperate. Most men can be well nigh cured. Listen then to the means of salvation.
"You must cure yourselves. Nor is the task easy, but it requires effort, perseverance, and temporary self-denial. You must DO, instead of passively folding your arms, to which you are inclined. Be it, that a cure requires hard work, are not LIFE, HEALTH,happiness, worth working hard to obtain? If in Niagara rapids, and certain to be precipitated over its yawning precipice in case you remain passive, but could save yourself by powerful effort, would you fold your hands? Would you not tax every energy of life to its utmost? What will not man do for his LIFE? And your life is at stake, and the prize of effort. I hear your eager inquiry, 'What shall I do to be saved?'
Abstain totally
"The least indulgence weakens hope, and is like paddling the canoe down the Niagara rapids, instead of toward its banks. Gradual emancipation, like leaving off drinking by degrees, will certainly increase both indulgence and suffering. This is true of all bad habits--is a law of things, and especially applicable here. 'Now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.' Some of my contemporaries advise occasional indulgence.
From this I dissent, and totally and unequivocally condemn all indulgence, every instance of which both augments passion and weakens resistance, by subjecting intellect and moral sentiment to propensity. If you cannot conquer now, you never can. Make one desperate stand and struggle. Summon every energy! Not once more! STOP SHORT!! 'Touch not, taste not, handle not,' lest you 'perish with the using.' Flee at once to perfect continence--your only city of refuge. Look not back towards Sodom, lest you die! Why will you go on to commit suicide? O son or daughter of sensuality! are you of no value? Are you not GODLIKE, and God endowed, born in your Maker's image, and most exalted both by nature and in your capabilities for enjoyment? Oh! will you, for a low-lived animal gratification, sell the birthright of your nature--all your intellectual powers, all your moral endowments, all your capabilities of enjoyment, and crowd every avenue and corner of both body and soul with untold agony? Behold the priceless gem of your nature! Oh! snatch it from impending destruction. TOTAL ABSTINENCE IS LIFE; animal, intellectual, moral. INDULGENCE IS TRIPLE DEATH! RESOLUTION--DETERMINATION TO STOP NOW AND FOREVER--is your starting point; without which no other remedial agents will avail anything. ABSTINENCE OR DEATH is your only alternative. STOP NOW AND FOREVER, or abandon all hope. Will you 'long debate which of the two to choose, slavery' and 'death'--and such a death--or abstinence and life? Do you 'return to your wallowing', and give up to die?
"No! Behold and shout the kindling resolve! See the intoxicating, poisoned cup of passion dashed aside. Hear the life-boat Resolution: 'I wash away the stain of the past in the reformation of the future! Born with capabilities thus exalted, I will yet be the man; no longer the groveling sensualist! Forgetting the past, I once more put on the garments of hope, and press forward in pursuit of those noble ends to which I once aspired, but from which this Delilah allured me. I will rise yet! On the bended knees of contrition and supplication, I bow before Jehovah's mercy-seat. On the altar of this hour, I lay my vow of abstinence and purity! No more will I sacrilegiously prostitute those glorious gifts with which thou hast graciously crowned me! I abjure forever this loathsome sin, and take the oath of allegiance to duty and to thee! Oh, "deliver me from temptation!" Of myself I am weak, but in thy strength I am strong! Do thou work in me to "WILL and to DO" only what is pure and holy. I have served "the lusts of the flesh," but oh! forgive and restore a repentant prodigal, and accept that entire consecration of my every power and faculty to thee! O gracious God, forgive, and save, and accept, for Jesus' sake; and thine shall be the glory forever. Amen.'
" 'I rise a renewed man! My vow is recorded before God! I will keep it inviolate. I will banish all unclean thoughts and feelings, and indulge only in holy wedlock. I will again "press forward" in the road of intellectual attainment and moral progression; and the more eagerly because of this hinderance. I drop but this one tear over the past, and then bury both my sin and shame in future efforts of self-improvement and labors of love. As mourning over my fall does not restore, but unnerves resolution and cripples effort, I cast the mantle of forgetfulness over the past. I have now to do only with the future. Nor must I remain a moment passive and idle. I have a great work before me, first, to repair my shattered constitution, which is the work, not of a day, but of my life; and also to recover my mental stamina and moral standing, and, if possible, soar higher still. What shall I do first?
Regain your health
"Your sufferings and losses grow mainly out of the injury it has sustained, and to regain it, is indispensable to both effort and enjoyment, and your great salvation from the consequences of past sins, and prevention of future ones.
"In effecting this restoration, you have mainly to obviate that inflammation already shown to have chiefly engendered your sufferings, and produced disease. Reduce it, and you both forestall farther injury, and give to Nature, your great physician, an opportunity to repair the breach.
"Dr. Trall, in the 'Hydropathic Encyclopedia,' remarks: 'In constitutions worn down by previous diseases, exhausted by riotous living, and undermined by abused Amativeness, the cure requires a strict and persevering observance of all the laws of hygiene, that the patient may outgrow, rather than doctor out, his ruinous ways. Unfortunately, however, there is no class of patients more fickle, vascillating, and unreliable; the mind partakes of the bodily degeneracy, and it requires a combination of rare and favorable circumstances to keep them from running after every foolish and whimsical impostor who advertises to cure them with a single bottle of bitters, which, moreover, is "pleasant to the taste." '
Avoid all stimulants and irritants
"Inflammation being the chief cause of your difficulty, everything calculated to increase it, is unequivocally bad. Hence, abandon, wholly and at once, tea, coffee, tobacco, and all stimulating meats and drinks. Otherwise, your struggle will be much more doubtful, tedious, and desperate. Any other fire burning in the system will augment this. Tea, Coffee, and tobacco, the last two in particular, are powerful narcotics, and, like opium, though soothing at first, ultimately only re-inflame, and are of themselves sufficient to keep up both the disease and the desire, and the inflammation you would conquer. They even often induce them, by causing an irritated, craving state of the nervous system, which aggravates desire from the first, by inflaming the nervous system, and of course the base of the brain. It is a settled physiological fact, that whatever stimulates the body, thereby proportionally irritates the base of the brain, Amativeness in particular, and thus causes lust, as well as sinful propensity in general. By this means it is that all intoxicating drinks cause both lust and depravity. It is their stimulating property which does this, and whatever stimulates the body, thereby stimulates the whole base of the brain, in consequence of that most intimate relation existing between the two, and therefore excites this passion, and more, probably, than any other. Now, tea, coffee, and tobacco, all stimulate, and of course excite both sinful propensity in general, and lustful desire in particular. The quid and the cigar have made sensualists and onans by the legion. Nor is coffee free from a like charge, and teas is also injurious.
"This is not all theory. It is sustained by facts. An acquaintance of the author, whose passion, professor though he is, is yet so rampant that he can govern himself only with the utmost difficulty, says, that after he has restrained himself for months, and got desire under subjection, a few cups of strong coffee will set him literally crazy after the sex, so that slight temptation will induce indulgence, and then, the helm carried away, self-control is out of the question till this passion has run him through and out, and brought him up debilitated and all on fire by excess, and penniless, after having squandered the savings of months of industry, perhaps years. He also recommends cathartics, yet their effect can be only temporary. Ultimately, they must debilitate the system. He says nothing saves him but 'TOTAL ABSTINENCE,' both from indulgence and from all stimulants.
"Besides, why make 'flesh of one' passion, 'and fowl of another'? Why not sweep the board? Break away from ALL bad habits. Conquer every lust, and be the man for in nothing consist the true dignity and glory of our nature more than in SELF-GOVERNMENT. Even 'If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee.' Much more may you abandon that filthy and confessedly injurious habit of tobacco-eating and burning; else it may yet shipwreck your hopes. Come, arise in the might of manhood, and conquer this, as a means of overcoming that.
"And ye daughters of loveliness! whom this feeling has injured, but who would return again to; purity, health, and happiness, sip no more of the beverage of China; no more of the drinks of Java; for both will only add fuel to those polluting fires you wish to quench, as well as perpetuate the disease you would subdue. Try to experiment, if you doubt this logic. Compare a month of abstinence with one of tea and coffee drinking. Already your system is all alive with feverish excitement, which these drinks enhance, and this deepens your gloom and your misery. If you would be yourself again, cut off this right-hand gratification, as a means of overcoming that. And if you ask what you shall drink at your meals, I say, nothing is best; yet cocoa, chocolate, or warm water seasoned, or bread coffee, rice coffee, pea coffee, corn coffee, etc., etc, will be good substitutes, as they do not inflame, and are palatable.
"For a similar reason, meats, mustards, condiments, peppers, spices, rich food, gravies,--every thing heating and irritating--will only add to existing inflammation, and increase both desire and disease. Do not keepers of horses, who wish to fire up this passion, in them, do it by feeding high? Farmers do the like by the female, in order to create the required desire. Do not men and women, by the licentious thousand, live luxuriously for the express purpose of kindling the disease? Go and do the opposite, ye who would produce opposite results!
"Some kinds of food, as already specified, excite amorous desires; while others, as rice, bread, fruit, vegetables, etc., do not; and may therefore be eaten, yet sparingly, because you are yet weak, and because overeating, even of the plainest food, is injurious. We have also seen that sensuality is apt to excite appetite and derange digestion. Coarse or Graham bread, with fruit, or rice, or sago, or tapioca, or potato starch pudding, etc., will tend to obviate inflammation, and allow the system to rally. In regard to regimen, Dr. Woodward remarks thus:
" 'The regimen must be strict, the diet should be simple and nutritious, and sufficient in quantity; it should be rather plain than light and abstemious no stimulating condiments should be used; the suppers should be particularly light, and late suppers should be wholly avoided. All stimulating drinks, even strong tea and coffee, should be discarded; cider and wine are very pernicious; tobacco, in all its forms not less so.'
"As to suppers, I recommend none at all. A full stomach induces dreams, or the exercise, in sleep, of those organs most liable to spontaneous action, which in this case is Amativeness, which produces libidinous dreams, with accompanying night emissions, which weaken and disease equally with indulgence. No supper at all, also allows the dinner to become fully digested, which facilitates sound sleep--nature's great restorative. Never fear starvation. We all eat twice too much. The gluttony of our nation is one great cause of its sensuality, which fasting will of course tend to obviate. Try to experiment. A friend thus afflicted has found great relief therefrom. Above all things
Keep doing
" 'An idle brain is Satan's workshop,' in this respect preeminently. Keep your mind employed, and lewd feelings can find no entrance; but, unoccupied, they come unbidden, and renew former associations and habits.
"But be very careful not to over-do--especially, over-lift. As you recover, you are in great danger of considering yourself stronger than you really are, and thus strain your back, and bring on a relapse of your night difficulty. Mark this caution.
"Graham's recommendation to touch these organs as little as possible, and to bring up children thus, I cordially indorse, because contact necessarily promotes both desire and inflammation.
Prevention
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure--here preeminently. Not to begin is the only safety. Nor is this prevention difficult. Nature has taken effectual means to secure this end. That wall of native modesty which she has thrown around every wellconstituted youth, is ample protection. They only require to be put upon their guard. They would not fall into these habits unless coaxed into them, nor then if they once suspected them of being either wrong or injurious. Such knowledge would furnish an allpowerful stimulant to modesty, and render it effectual. They now suspect no harm, and intend no more wrong than in eating. To know that it is virtually on a par with sexual intercourse in its corrupting influence on the mind, and in its injury of the health, would awaken Conscientiousness to joint effort with modesty, and save nearly all. But ignorance lulls conscience, and persuasion and imitation overcome shame, and they enter the broad road, and soon find that death is in the practice. The simple knowledge of the fact that these practices sap their capabilities of enjoying this same pleasure in wedlock, would also prevent personal indulgence, as in 'Love and Parentage,' it was shown to be a preventive of licentiousness. Diffusing appropriate knowledge, and circulating appropriate books, on this subject, will work an effectual cure. And I anticipate great good from the means and efforts now in progress touching this matter.
The premature development of amativeness,
Is, however, the great hot-house of sensuality in all its forms. Nature has taken special pains to postpone the development of this instinct until intellect has attained sufficient strength to guide it, the moral sentiments power enough to sanctify and restrain it, and the body sufficient maturity to sustain its drain with impunity. Is not this postponement a most beautiful provision? If it had made its appearance as early as the others, it would have withdrawn those energies from the system required for growth, yet have done no good. As it is, however, nature postpones the matrimonial desires till the subject is prepared to regulate this instinct, and convert it into a means of incalculable enjoyment. At precisely what age it should develop itself, it may be difficult to say, but certainly not till from the eighteenth to the twentieth year; and then it is held in effectual check by native modesty for a considerable time before it acquires sufficient impetus to make love outright; and finally takes years to ripen into a state prepared for marriage--at least for its ultimate rights.
"Would to God and humanity that nature were allowed to have her perfect work in this respect. But, alas! our youth are reared in a hot-bed of Amativeness. This impulse is developed several years before its time, and hence, mainly, its perversion. Ye who labor and pray for the banishment of lust, and the moral purity of man, mark well the CAUSE OF CAUSES of man's carnality in all its forms. It is the ARTIFICIAL STIMULATION, and the PREMATURE DEVELOPMENT of the sexual instinct. Mark the following incentives of premature love, and its morbid, sensual direction, from Fowler on Matrimony:
" 'The conduct and conversation of adults before children and youth. How often have I blushed with shame and kindled with indignation at the conversation of parents, and especially of mothers, to their children! "John, go and kiss Harriet, for she is your sweetheart." Well may shame make him hesitate and hang his head. "Why, John, I did not think you so great a coward. Afraid of the girls, are you? That will never do. Come, go along, and hug and kiss her. There, that's a man. I guess you will love the girls yet."
" 'Continually is he teased about the girls, and being in love, till he really selects a sweetheart. I will not lift the vail, nor expose the conduct of children among themselves. And all this, because adults have filled their heads with those impurities which surfeit their own. What could more effectually wear off that natural delicacy, that maiden purity and bashfulness, which form the main barrier against the influx of vitiated Amativeness? How often do those whose modesty has been worn smooth, even take pleasure in thus saying and doing things to raise the blush on the cheek of youth and innocence, merely to witness the effect of these improper allusions upon them; little realizing that they are thereby breaking down the barriers of their virtue, and prematurely kindling the fires of animal passion!
" 'As puberty approaches, the evil magnifies. The prematurely kindled embers of love now burst forth into the unextinguishable flames of unbridled licentiousness or selfpollution. Most of the conversation of young people is upon love matters, or used in throwing or pretending to parry the shafts of love; and nearly all their plays abound in kissing, mock-marriages, etc., etc. The entire machinery balls and parties, of dances, and the other amusements of young people, tend to excite and inflame this passion. Thinking it a fine thing to get in love, they court and form attachments long before either their mental or physical powers are matured. Of course, these young loves, these green-house exotics, must be broken off, and their miserable subjects left burning up with the fierce fires of a flaming passion, which, if let alone, would have slumbered on for years, till they were prepared for its proper management and exercise.
" 'Nor is it merely the conversation of adults, that does all this mischief; their manners also increase it. Young men take the hands of girls from six to sixteen years old, kiss them, press them, and play with them, so as, in a variety of ways, to excite this organ combined, I grant, with friendship and refinement--for all this is genteelly done. They intend no harm, and parents dream of none; and yet their embryo love is awakened, to be again still more easily excited, Maidens, and even married women, often express similar feelings towards lads, not perhaps positively improper in themselves, yet injurious in their ultimate effects.
Reading novels, love tales, etc., injurious
" 'The fashionable reading of the day is still more objectionable. As to its amount, let publishers, and the editors of family newspapers, testify. Whose sales are the greatest? Whose patronage is the most extensive? Those who publish the most novels, and the best (? worst) love-tales. Let those weeklies that boast of their "30,000 subscribers." and claim "the largest circulation in the world," have a red line drawn across every column containing a story, the substance and seasoning of which is love, and more than half their entire contents will be crimsoned with the sign of Amativeness! Try this experiment and it will astonish you. Country newspapers also must have a part on the whole of some love-tale every week, or else run down. These stories, girls are allowed and encouraged to read. How often have I seen girls not twelve years old, as hungry for a story or novel as they should be for their dinners! A sickly sentimentalism is thus formed, and their minds are sullied with impure desires. Every fashionable young lady must of course read every new novel, though nearly all of them contain exceptionable allusions, perhaps delicately covered over with a thin gauze of fashionable refinement; yet, on that very account, the more objectionable. If this work contained one improper allusion to their ten, many of those fastidious ladies who now eagerly devour the vulgarities of Marryatt, and the double-entendres of Bulwer, and even converse with gentlemen about their contents, would discountenance or condemn it as improper. SHAME ON NOVEL-READING WOMEN! for they cannot have pure minds or unsullied feelings, but Cupid, and the beaux, and waking dreams of love, are first consuming their health and virtue.
" 'Not that I impute the lest blame to those respectable editors and publishers, who fill their coffers by feasting this diseased public appetite, especially of the ladies, even though they pander to, and increase, this worst vice of this our vicious age and nation; any more than I blame grog-sellers for making money out of another diseased public taste; because both are aiming mainly at dollars and cents, yet stabbing public virtue to the heart. But their money will be a curse to them, and their trash is a curse to its readers.'
"A heating, stimulating diet still more prematurely develops this passion. By heating up and fevering the body, it of course fevers the propensities, but none more than this. We have already seen, that meats, teas, coffee, mustards, spices, etc., stimulate it in adults. Hence, they of course induce precocious sexuality in children. On this account, if on no other, these things, coffee in particular, are utterly unfit for the young. Rather feed them on what will allay this impulse, instead of prematurely exciting it. Nor can we expect the world to become pure morally till a correct system of dietetics is generally practiced. A heating diet, after all, is the most prolific cause of 'excessive and perverted sexuality.' Parents, mind what you feed your children. Youth, observe a correct regimen. Married and single, who would reduce this feeling, eat and drink cooling, calming articles only."
Note:
- This sending children to school however select, is a most grievous evil; because, as children are imitative creatures, all the bad habits of all the scholars are adopted by all the others. Our common schools are complete nuisances, by thus propagating vice, nor can the evil be remedied till parents educate their children.