means lust. The faculty has been lowered and debased until it might
almost be considered practically synonymous with sensuality. The first
step toward reform must be a recognition of a higher and purer relation
than that which centers every thought upon the gratification of the
animal in human nature. If one may judge from the facts which now and
then come to the surface in society, it would appear that the
opportunity for sensual gratification had come to be, in the world at
large, the chief attraction between the sexes. If to these observations
we add the filthy disclosures constantly made in police courts and
scandal suits, we have a powerful confirmation of the opinion. Even
ministers, who ought to be "ensamples to the flock," are rather "blind
leaders of the blind," and fall into the same ditch with the rest.
This perversion of a natural instinct, and these sudden lapses from
virtue which startle a small portion of community and afford a filthy
kind of pleasure to the other part, are but the outgrowths of mental
unchastity. "Filthy dreamers," before they are aware, become filthy
in action. The thoughts mold the brain, as certainly as the brain molds
the thoughts. Rapidly down the current of sensuality is swept the
individual who yields his imagination to the contemplation of
lascivious themes. Before he knows his danger, he finds himself deep
in the mire of concupiscence. He may preserve a fair exterior; but
deception cannot cleanse the slime from his putrid soul. How many a
church-member carries under a garb of piety a soul filled with
abominations, no human scrutiny can tell. How many pulpits are filled
by "whited sepulchers," only the Judgment will disclose.
Unchaste Conversation.--"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh." "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of Judgment." "By thy words thou shalt be
condemned." Matt. 12: 34, 36, 37. In these three brief sentences, Christ
presents the whole moral aspect of the subject of this paragraph. To
any one who will ponder well his weighty words, no further remark is
necessary. Let filthy talkers but consider for a moment what a multitude
of "idle," unclean words are waiting for account in the final day; and
then let them consider what a load of condemnation must roll upon their
guilty souls when strict justice is meted out to every one before the
bar of Omnipotence, and in the face of all the world--of all the
universe.
The almost universal habit among boys and young men of relating filthy
stories, indulging in foul jokes, making indecent allusions, and
subjecting to lewd criticism every passing female, is a most abominable
sin. Such habits crush out pure thoughts; they annihilate respect for
virtue; they make the mind a quagmire of obscenity; they lead to overt
acts of lewdness.
But boys and youths are not alone in this. More often than otherwise,
they gain from older ones the phraseology of vice. And if the sin is
loathsome in such youthful transgressors, what detestable enormity
must characterize it in the old.
And women, too, are not without their share in this accursed thing,
this ghost of vice, which haunts the sewing-circle and the parlor as
well as the club-room. They do not, of course, often descend to those
black depths of vulgarity to which the coarser sex will go, but couch
in finer terms the same foul thoughts, and hide in loose insinuations
more smut than words could well express. Women who think themselves
rare paragons of virtue can find no greater pleasure than in the
discussion of the latest scandal, speculations about the chastity of
Mrs. A. or Mr. B., and gossip about the "fall" of this man's daughter
or the amorous adventures of that woman's son.
Masculine purity loves to regard woman as chaste in mind as well as
in body, to surround her with conceptions of purity and impregnable
virtue; but the conclusion is irresistible that those who can gloat
over others' lapses from virtue, and find delight in such questionable
entertainments as the most recent case of seduction, or the newest
scandal, have need to purify their hearts and re-enforce their waning
chastity. Nevertheless, a writer says, and perhaps truly, that "the
women comprise about all the real virtue there is in the world."
Certainly if they were one-half as bad as the masculine portion of
humanity, the world would be vastly worse than it is.
Causes of Unchastity.--Travelers among the North American Indians have
been struck with the almost entire absence of that abandonment to vice
which might be expected in a race uninfluenced by the moral restraints
of Christianity. When first discovered in their native wilds, they were
free from both the vices and the consequent diseases of civilization.
This fact points unmistakably to the conclusion that there must be
something in the refinements and perversions of civilized life which
is unfavorable to chastity, notwithstanding all the restraints which
religion and the conventionalisms of society impose. Can we find such
influences? Yes; they abound on every hand and leave their blight in
most unwelcome places, oft unsuspected, even, till the work of ruin
is complete.
Early Causes.--The earliest of all causes is hereditary predisposition.
As we have shown, a child conceived in lust can no more be chaste by
nature than a negro can be a Caucasian. But back of this there is a
deeper cause, as we shall see, one that affects parents as well as
offspring. Between infancy and puberty, are in operation, all those
influences mentioned under "Sexual Precocity."
The frequent custom of allowing children of the opposite sex to sleep
together, even until eight or ten years of age, or longer, is a dangerous
one. We have known of instances in which little boys of seven or eight
have been allowed to sleep with girls of fourteen or sixteen, in some
of which most shameful lessons were taught, and by persons who would
not be suspected of such an impropriety. In one instance a little boy
of eight, occupying the same bed with three girls several years older,
was used for illustration by the older girl in instructing the younger
ones in the _modus operandi_ of reproduction. The sexes should be
carefully separated from each other at least as early as four or five
years of age, under all circumstances which could afford opportunity
for observing the physical differences of the sexes, or in any way serve
to excite those passions which at this tender age should be wholly
dormant.
Diet vs. Chastity.--From earliest infancy to impotent old age, under
the perverting influence of civilization, there is a constant
antagonism between diet and purity. Sometimes--rarely we hope--the
helpless infant imbibes the essence of libidinous desires with its
mother's milk, and thence receives upon its forming brain the stamp
of vice. When old enough to take food in the ordinary way, the infant's
tender organs of digestion are plied with highly seasoned viands,
stimulating sauces, animal food, sweetmeats, and dainty tidbits in
endless variety. Soon, tea and coffee are added to the list. Salt,
pepper, ginger, mustard, condiments of every sort, deteriorate his
daily food. If, perchance, he does not die at once of indigestion, or
with his weakened forces fall a speedy victim to the diseases incident
to infancy, he has his digestive organs impaired for life at the very
outset of his existence.
Exciting stimulants and condiments weaken and irritate his nerves and
derange the circulation. Thus, indirectly, they affect the sexual
system, which suffers through sympathy with the other organs. But a
more direct injury is done. Flesh, condiments, eggs, tea, coffee,
chocolate, and all stimulants, have a powerful influence directly upon
the reproductive organs. They increase the local supply of blood; and
through nervous sympathy with the brain, the passions are aroused.
Overeating, eating between meals, hasty eating, eating indigestible
articles of food, late suppers, react upon the sexual organs with the
utmost certainty. Any disturbance of the digestive function
deteriorates the quality of the blood. Poor blood, filled with crude,
poorly digested food, is irritating to the nervous system, and
especially to those extremely delicate nerves which govern the
reproductive function. Irritation provokes congestion; congestion
excites sexual desires; excited passions increase the local
disturbance; and thus each reacts upon the other, ever increasing the
injury and the liability to future damage.
Thus, these exciting causes continue their insidious work through youth
and more mature years. Right under the eyes of fathers and mothers they
work the ruin of their children, exciting such storms of passion as
are absolutely uncontrollable.
Clerical Lapses.--Our most profound disgust is justly excited when we
hear of laxity of morals in a clergyman. We naturally feel that one
whose calling is to teach his fellow-men the way of truth, and right,
and purity, should himself be free from taint of immorality. But when
we consider how these ministers are fed, we cannot suppress a momentary
disposition to excuse, in some degree, their fault. When the minister
goes out to tea, he is served with the richest cake, the choicest jellies,
the most pungent sauces, and the finest of fine-flour bread-stuffs.
Little does the indulgent hostess dream that she is ministering to the
inflammation of passions which may imperil the virtue of her daughter,
or even her own. Salacity once aroused, even in a minister, allows no
room for reason or for conscience. If women wish to preserve the virtue
of their ministers, let them feed them more in accordance with the laws
of health. Ministers are not immaculate.
The remedy for the dangers to chastity arising from this source, is
pointed out in the article on "Continence."
Tobacco and Vice.--Few are aware of the influence upon morals exerted
by that filthy habit, tobacco-using. When acquired early, it excites
the undeveloped organs, arouses the passions, and in a few years
converts the once chaste and pure youth into a veritable volcano of
lust, belching out from its inner fires of passion torrents of obscenity
and the sulphurous fumes of lasciviousness. If long-continued, the
final effect of tobacco is emasculation; but this is only the necessary
consequence of previous super-excitation. The lecherous day-dreams in
which many smokers indulge, are a species of fornication for which even
a brute ought to blush, if such a crime were possible for a brute. The
mental libertine does not confine himself to bagnios and women of the
town. In the foulness of his imagination, he invades the sanctity of
virtue wherever his erotic fancy leads him.
We are aware that we have made a grave charge against tobacco, and we
have not hesitated to state the naked truth; yet we do not think we
have exaggerated, in the least, the pernicious influence of this foul
drug. As much, or nearly as much, might be said against the use of liquor,
on the same grounds.
Bad Books.--Another potent enemy of virtue is the obscene literature
which has flooded the land for many years. Circulated by secret agencies,
these books have found their way into the most secluded districts.
Nearly every large school contains one of these emissaries of evil men
and their Satanic master. Some idea of the enormity and extent of this
evil may be gained from the following quotations from a published letter
of Mr. Anthony Comstock, who has been for some time employed by the
Young Men's Christian Association in suppressing the traffic by
arresting the publishers and destroying their goods:--
"I have succeeded in unearthing this hydra-headed monster in part, as
you will see by the following statement, which, in many respects, might
be truthfully increased in quantity. These I have seized and
destroyed:--
"Obscene photographs, stereoscopic and other pictures, more than one
hundred and eighty-two thousand; obscene books and pamphlets, more than
five tons; obscene letter-press in sheets, more than two tons; sheets
of impure songs, catalogues, handbills, etc., more than twenty-one
thousand; obscene microscopic watch and knife charms, and finger-rings,
more than five thousand; obscene negative plates for printing
photographs and stereoscopic views, about six hundred and twenty-five;
obscene engraved steel and copper plates, three hundred and fifty;
obscene lithographic stones destroyed, twenty; obscene wood-cut
engravings, more than five hundred; stereotype plates for printing
obscene books, more than five tons; obscene transparent playing-cards,
nearly six thousand; obscene and immoral rubber articles, over thirty
thousand; lead molds for manufacturing rubber goods, twelve sets, or
more than seven hundred pounds; newspapers seized, about four thousand
six hundred; letters from all parts of the country ordering these goods,
about fifteen thousand; names of dealers in account-books seized, about
six thousand; lists of names in the hands of dealers, that are sold
as merchandise to forward circulars or catalogues to, independent of
letters and account-books seized, more than seven thousand; arrest of
dealers since Oct. 9, 1871, more than fifty."
"These abominations are disseminated by these men first obtaining the
names and addresses of scholars and students in our schools and colleges,
and then forwarding circulars. They secure thousands of names in this
way, either by sending for a catalogue of schools, seminaries, and
colleges, under a pretense of sending a child to attend these places,
or else by sending out a circular purporting to be getting up a directory
of all the scholars and students in schools and colleges in the United
States, or of taking the census of all the unmarried people, and
offering to pay five cents per name for lists so sent. I need not say
that the money is seldom or never sent, but I do say that these names,
together with those that come in reply to advertisements, are sold to
other parties; so that when a man desires to engage in this nefarious
business, he has only to purchase a list of these names, and then your
child, be it son or daughter, is liable to have thrust into its hands,
all unknown to you, one of these devilish catalogues."
"Since the destruction of the stereotype plates of old books, secret
circulars have been discovered of a notice to dealers that twelve new
books are in course of preparation, and will soon be ready for
delivery."
Says Hon. C. L. Merriam, as quoted by Dr. Lewis: "We find that the
dealers in obscene literature have organized circulating libraries,
which are under the charge of the most vicious boys in the schools,
boys chosen and paid by the venders, and who circulate among the
students, at ten cents a volume, any of the one hundred and forty-four
obscene books heretofore published in New York City."
Largely through the influence of Mr. Comstock, laws have been enacted
which promise to do much toward checking this extensive evil, or at
least causing it to make itself less prominent. Our newspapers still
abound with advertisements of various so-called medical works,
"Marriage Guides," etc., which are fruits of the same "upas-tree" that
Mr. Comstock has labored so faithfully to uproot.
It is a painful fact, however, that the total annihilation of every
foul book which the law can reach will not effect the cure of this evil,
for our modern literature is full of the same virus. It is necessarily
presented in less grossly revolting forms, half concealed by beautiful
imagery, or embellished by wit; but yet, there it is, and no law can
reach it. The works of our standard authors in literature abound in
lubricity. Popular novels have doubtless done more to arouse a prurient
curiosity in the young, and to excite and foster passion and immorality,
than even the obscene literature for the suppression of which such
active measures have recently been taken. The more exquisitely painted
the scenes of vice, the more dangerously enticing. Novel-reading has
led thousands to lives of dissoluteness.
Idleness.--This evil is usually combined with the preceding. To
maintain purity, the mind must be occupied. If left without occupation,
the vacuity is quickly filled with unchaste thoughts. Nothing can be
worse for a child than to be reared in idleness. His morals will be
certain to suffer. Incessant mental occupation is the only safeguard
against unchastity. Those worthless fops who spend their lives in
"killing time" by lounging about bar-rooms, loafing on street corners,
or strutting up and down the boulevard, are anything but chaste. Those
equally worthless young women who waste their lives on sofas or in
easy-chairs, occupied only with some silly novel, or idling away life's
precious hours in reverie--such creatures are seldom the models of
purity one would wish to think them. If born with a natural propensity
toward sin, such a life would soon engender a diseased, impure
imagination, if nothing worse.
Dress and Sensuality.--There are two ways in which fashionable dress
leads to unchastity; viz., 1. By its extravagance; 2. By its abuse of
the body.
How does extravagance lead to unchastity? By creating the temptation
to sin. It affects not those gorgeously attired ladies who ride in fine
carriages, and live in brown-stone fronts, who are surrounded with all
the luxuries that wealth can purchase--fine apparel is no temptation
to such. But to less favored--though not less worthy--ones, these
magnificent displays of millinery goods and fine trappings are most
powerful temptations. The poor seamstress, who can earn by diligent
toil hardly enough to pay her board bill, has no legitimate way by which
to deck herself with the finery she admires. Plainly dressed as she
must be if she remains honest and retains her virtue, she is scornfully
ignored by her proud sisters. Everywhere she finds it a generally
recognized fact that "dress makes the lady." On the street, no one steps
aside to let her pass, no one stoops to regain for her the package that
slips from her weary hands. Does she enter a crowded car, no one offers
her a seat, though she is trembling with fatigue, while the showily
dressed woman who follows her is accommodated at once. She marks the
difference; she does not pause to count the cost, but barters away her
self-respect, to gain the respect, or deference, of strangers.
How Young Women Fall.--It has been authoritatively stated that there
are, in our large cities, hundreds of young women who, being able to
earn barely enough to buy food and fuel and pay the rent of a dismal
attic, take the advice offered by their employers, "Get some gentleman
friend to dress you for your company." Others spend all their small
earnings to keep themselves "respectably" dressed, and share the board
and lodgings of some young _roue_ as heartless as incontinent. Persons
unaccustomed to city life, and thousands of people in the very heart
of our great metropolis, have no conception of the frightful prevalence
of this kind of prostitution. Young women go to our large cities as
pure as snow. They find no lucrative employment. Daily contact with
vice obtunds their first abhorrence of it. Gradually it becomes
familiar. A fancied life of ease presents allurements to a hard-worked
sewing-girl. Fine clothes and comfortable lodgings increase the
temptation. She yields, and barters her body for a home without the
trouble of a marriage ceremony.
Wealthy women could do more to cure the "social evil" by adopting plain
attire than all the civil authorities by passing license laws or
regulating ordinances. Have not Christian women a duty here? A few years
ago, some Nashville ladies made a slight move in the right direction,
as indicated in the following paragraph; but we have not heard that
their example has been followed:--
"The lady members of the first Baptist Church, of Nashville, Tenn.,
have agreed that they will dispense with all finery on Sunday, wearing
no jewels but consistency, and hereafter appear at church in plain
calico dresses."
A more radical reform would have been an extension of the salutary
measure to all other days of the week as well as Sunday; though we see
no reason for restricting the material of clothing to calico, which
might, indeed, be rather insufficient for some seasons of the year.
Fashion and Vice.--Let us glance at the second manner in which dress
lends its influence to vice, by obstructing the normal functions of
the body. 1. Fashion requires a woman to compress her waist with bands
or corsets. In consequence, the circulation of the blood toward the
heart is obstructed. The venous blood is crowded back into the delicate
organs of generation. Congestion ensues, and with it, through reflex
action, the unnatural excitement of the animal propensities. 2. The
manner of wearing the clothing, suspending several heavy garments from
the hips, increases the same difficulty by bringing too large a share
of clothing where it is least needed, thus generating unnatural local
heat. 3. The custom of clothing the feet and limbs so thinly that they
are exposed to constant chilling, by still further unbalancing the
circulation, adds another element to increase the local mischief.
All of these causes combined, operating almost constantly,--with
others that might be mentioned,--produce permanent local congestions,
with ovarian and uterine derangements. The latter affections have long
been recognized as the chief pathological condition in hysteria, and
especially in that peculiar form of disease known as _nymphomania_,
under the excitement of which a young woman, naturally chaste and modest,
may be impelled to the commission of the most wanton acts. The
pernicious influence of fashionable dress in occasioning this disorder
cannot be doubted.
Reform in Dress Needed.--The remedy for these evils, the only way to
escape them, is reformation. The dress must be so adjusted to the body
that every organ will be allowed free movement. No corset, band, belt,
or other means of constriction, should impede the circulation. Garments
should be suspended from the shoulders by means of a waist, or proper
suspenders. The limbs should be as warmly clad as any other portion
of the body. How best to secure these requirements of health may be
learned from several excellent works on dress reform, any of which can
be readily obtained of the publishers of this work or their agents.
Fashionable Dissipation.--The influence of so important an agent for
evil in this direction as fashionable dissipation, cannot be ignored.
By fashionable dissipation we mean that class of excesses in the
indulgence in which certain classes, usually the more wealthy or
aristocratic, pride themselves. Among this class of persons a man who
is known to be a common drunkard would not be recognized; such a person
would be carefully shunned; yet a total abstainer would be avoided with
almost equal care, and would be regarded as a fanatic or an extremist
at least. With persons of this class, wine-drinking is considered
necessary as a matter of propriety. Along with wine are taken the great
variety of highly seasoned foods, spices, and condiments in profusion,
with rich meats and all sorts of delicacies, rich desserts, etc., which
can hardly be considered much less harmful than stimulants of a more
generally recognized character.
These indulgences excite that part of the system which generally needs
restraint rather than stimulation. A participant, an ex-governor,
recently described to us a grand political dinner given in honor of
a noted American citizen, which began at 5 P.M., and continued until
nearly midnight, continuous courses of foods, wines, etc., being served
for nearly six hours. Similar scenes have been enacted in a score of
our large cities for the same ostensible purpose. Knowing that public
men are addicted to such gormandizing on numerous occasions, we do not
wonder that so many of them are men of loose morals.