The growth of habits of licentiousness amongst us exerts the most

direct and injurious influence on the lives of virtuous young women of

the middle and upper classes of society. The mode of this influence

demands very serious consideration on the part of parents. It is

natural that young women should wish to please. They possess the true

instinct which would guide them to their noble position in society, as

the centres of pure and happy homes. How do our social customs meet

this want? All the young women of the middle and upper classes of

society, no matter how pure and innocent their natures, are brought

by these customs of society into direct competition with prostitutes!

The modest grace of pure young womanhood, its simple, refined tastes,

its love of home pleasures, its instinctive admiration of true and

noble sentiments and actions, although refreshing as a contrast, will

not compare for a moment with the force of attraction which sensual

indulgence and the excitement of debauch exert upon the youth who

is habituated to such intoxications. The virtuous girl exercises a

certain amount of attraction for a passing moment, but the intense

craving awakened in the youth for something far more exciting than she

can offer, leads him ever farther from her, in the direction where

this morbid craving can be freely indulged. This result is inevitable

if licentiousness is to be accepted as a necessary part of society.

Physical passion is not in itself evil; on the contrary, it is an

essential part of our nature. It is an endowment which, like every

other _human_ faculty, has the power of high growth. It possesses that

distinctive human characteristic--receptivity to mental impressions.

These impressions blend so completely with itself as to change its

whole character and effect, and it thus becomes an ennobling or a

degrading agent in our lives. In either case, for good or for evil, sex

takes a first place as a motive power in human education. The young

man inexperienced in life and necessarily crude in thought, but fallen

into vice, is mastered by this downward force, and the good girl loses

more and more her power over the strong natural attraction of sex which

would otherwise draw him to her. The influence which corrupt young men,

on the other hand, exercise upon the young women of their own standing

in society, is both strong and often injurious. It being natural that

young women should seek to attract and retain them, they unconsciously

endeavour to adapt themselves to their taste. These tastes are formed

by uneducated girls and by society of which the respectable young woman

feels the effects, and of which she has a vague suspicion, although,

happily, she cannot measure the depth of the evil. The tastes and

desires of her young male acquaintance, moulded by coarse material

enjoyments, act directly upon the respectable girl, who gives herself

up with natural impulse to the influence of her male companion. We

thus witness a widespread and inevitable deterioration in manners,

dress, thought, and habits amongst the respectable classes of young

women. This result leads eventually, as on the Continent, to the entire

separation of young men and women in the middle and upper ranks of

life, to the arrangement of marriage as a business affair, and to the

union of the young with the old.

The faults now so often charged upon young women, their love of dress,

luxury, and pleasure, their neglect of economy and dislike of steady

home duties, may be traced directly to the injurious influence which

habits of licentiousness are exercising directly and indirectly upon

marriage, the home, and society. The subject of dress is one of serious

importance, for it is a source of extravagance in all classes, and one

of the strongest temptations to vice among poor girls. The creation of

this morbid excess in dress by licentiousness is evident. If physical

attraction is the sole or chief force which draws young men to young

women, then everything which either enhances physical charms, which

brings them more prominently forward, or which supplies the lack of

physical beauty, must necessarily be resorted to by women, whose nature

it is to draw men to them. The stronger the general domination of

physical sensation--over character, sympathy, companionship, mutual

help, and social growth--becomes amongst men, the more exclusive,

intense, and competitive must grow this morbid devotion to dress on the

part of women. Did young men seriously long for a virtuous wife and

happy home, and fit themselves to secure those blessings, young women

would naturally cultivate the domestic qualities which insure a bright,

attractive home. The young man, however, is now discouraged from early

marriage; the question soon presents itself to him: ‘Why should I

marry and burden myself with a wife and family? I am very well off

as I am; I can spend my money as I like on personal pleasures; I can

get all that I want from women without losing my liberty or assuming

responsibilities!’ The respectable girl is thus forced into a most

degrading and utterly unavailing competition with the prostitute or the

mistress. Marriage is indefinitely postponed by the young man; at first

it may be from necessity, later from choice. The young woman, unable to

obtain the husband suited to her in age, must either lead a single life

or accept the unnatural union with a rich elderly man.

The grave physiological error of promoting marriage between the young

and the old cannot be dwelt on here. It is productive of very grave

evils, both to the health and happiness of the individual and to

the growth of the Race. The steady decrease of marriage, and at the

same time the late date at which it is contracted as licentiousness

increases, is shown by a comparison of the statistics of Belgium and

France with those of England. We find also that the character of

the population deteriorates with the spread of vice--the standard

of recruiting for the army is lowered, an ever-increasing mass of

fatherless children die or become criminals, and, finally, the natural

growth of the population of the country constantly decreases.

The records of History confirm the teaching of Physiology and

Observation in relation to the fundamental character of sexual virtue,

as the secret of durable national greatness. The decline of all the

great nations of antiquity is marked by the prevalence of gross social

corruption. The complex effects of the same cause are strikingly

observed in the condition of the Mohammedan and other Eastern races and

in all the tribes subject to them. We find amongst these races, as the

result of their sexual customs, a want of human charity. This is shown

in the absence of benevolent institutions and other modes of expressing

sympathy. A great gulf separates the rich and poor, bridged over by

no offices of kindness, no sense of the sacred oneness of humanity,

which is deeper than all separations of caste or condition. There is

no respect shown for human life, which is lightly and remorselessly

sacrificed, and punishment degenerates into torture. There is also

an incapacity for understanding the fundamental value of truth and

honesty, and a consequent impossibility of creating a good government.

We observe that bravery degenerates into fierceness and cruelty, and

that the apathy of the masses keeps them victims of oppression. It is

the exhibition of a race where there is no development of the Moral

Element in human nature. These general characteristics and their cause

were well described by the celebrated surgeon Lallemand, who says: ‘The

contrast between the polygamous and sensual East and the monogamous

and intellectual West displays on a large scale the different results

produced by the different exercise of the sexual powers. On one side,

Polygamy, harems, seraglios--the source of venereal excesses--barbarous

mutilations, revolting and unnatural vice, with the population

scanty, inactive, indolent, sunk in ignorance, and consequently the

victim of misery and of every kind of despotism. On the other side,

Monogamy, Christian austerity, more equal distribution of domestic

happiness, increase of intelligence, liberty, and general well-being;

rapid increase of an active, laborious, and enterprising population,

necessarily spreading and dominating.’

The great moral element of society, which contains the power of

self-renewal and continual growth, must necessarily be wanting in all

nations where one-half of the people--the centre of the family, out of

which society must grow--remains in a stunted or perverted condition.

Women, as well as men, create society. Their share is a silent one. It

has not the glitter of gold and purple, the noise of drums and marching

armies, the smoke and clank of furnaces and machinery. All the splendid

din of external life is wanting in the quiet realm of distinctive

woman’s work; therefore it is often overlooked, misunderstood, or

despised. Nevertheless, it is of vital importance. It preserves the

only germ of society which is capable of permanent growth--the germ of

unselfish human love and innate righteousness--in distinction to which

all dazzling material splendour and intellectual ability, divorced from

the love of Right, is but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. It is for

this reason that no polygamous or licentious customs, which destroy the

woman’s nature and dry up the deepest source of human sympathy, can

possibly produce a durable or a noble and happy nation. The value of

a nation, its position in the scale of humanity, its durability, must

always be judged by the condition of its masses, and the test of that

condition is the strength and purity of home virtues--the character of

the women of the nation.

No reference to the lessons of History, however brief, should omit

the effect produced by religious teaching. The influence exercised

by the Christian religion in relation to sex is of the most striking

character. Christian teaching is distinguished from other religious

teaching by its justice to women, its tender reverence for childhood,

and by the laying down of that great corner-stone, Inward Holiness, as

the indispensable foundation of true life. This is all summed up in

its establishment of unitary marriage, through the emphatic adoption

of the original Law, ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his

mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.’

The development of this Law by Jesus Christ into its high significance

of spiritual purity, whilst it has been a principle of growth in the

past, is the great hope of the future. The study of this Christian

type, in its radical effect upon national life, is full of interest

and instruction, but is also a study of great difficulty. This teaching

of our Lord has never been adopted as the universal rule of practical

life by any nation. The results of this law of union can only be judged

on a large scale by comparing the condition of so-called Christian

countries--where a certain amount of this high teaching has been

diffused through the community--with the condition of nations where

no such teaching has existed. The great battle between Christianity

and Paganism still continues in our midst. The actual practical

type prevailing in all civilized nations is not Christian. In these

nations the Christian idea of unitary sexual relations is accepted

theoretically, as conducive to the best interests of the family and

binding upon the higher classes of women; but it is entirely set

aside as a practical life for the majority of the community. Christ’s

Law is considered either as a vague command, applicable only to some

indefinite future, or as a theory which it would be positively unwise

to put into practice in daily life. The statement is distinctly made,

and widely believed, that the nature of men and women differs so

radically that the same moral law is not applicable to the two sexes.

The great lesson derived from History, however, is always this--viz.,

that moral development must keep pace with the intellectual, or the

race degenerates. This moral element is especially embodied by woman,

and purity in woman cannot exist without purity in man, this weighty

fact being shown by the facts already stated--viz., the action of

licentiousness upon the great mass of unprotected women, its reaction

upon other classes, and the accumulating influence of hereditary

sensuality.

In the indisputable principles brought forward in the preceding pages,

and the mass of facts and daily observation which support them, is

found the answer to the first question proposed as a guide to the moral

education of youth--viz.: What is the true standard for the relations

of men and women, the type which contains within itself the germ of

progress and indefinite development?

We see that the early and faithful union of one man with one woman is

the true Ideal of Society. It secures the health and purity of the

family relation, and is the foundation of social and national welfare.

It is supported by sound principles of Physiology, by the history of

the rise and fall of nations, and by a consideration of the evils of

our present age. The lessons of the past and present, our clearer

knowledge of cause and effect, alike prove the wisdom of the highest

religious teaching--viz., that the faithful union of strong and pure

young manhood and womanhood is the only element out of which a strong

and durable nation can grow.

CHAPTER III

_The Hygienic Advantage of Sexual Morality_

The present subject may be summed up in two great questions--viz.,

First, is Virtue desirable? Secondly, is Virtue practicable?

We have shown in the preceding investigation that the control of the

sexual passion and its guidance by Reason--which we name Virtue--is of

fundamental importance; that it is essential to individual health, to

the happiness of the family, to the purity of Society, and the growth

of a strong nation. Virtue, therefore, is desirable. It remains to

consider whether it be practicable. No vagueness or doubt should exist

in relation to fundamental principles of education. Methods may change;

no inflexible rule can be laid down. Enlarging experience, enlightened

by love, will vary infinitely the adaptations needed in the education

of infinitely varied children, but the aim of education should not

vary. Sound knowledge, as well as a steadfast faith and hope, must

guide every intelligent parent from the beginning of family life, or

confusion, perplexity, and endless difficulties will be added to the

inevitable difficulties of education.

One of the most serious questions to be understood and practically

answered by parents in the education of their sons is this: If in

relation to sex Chastity be the true moral aim of a young man’s

education, can it be secured without injury to his health? Is morality

an advantage to the health of young men?[32] It is impossible to

over-estimate the importance of this question, both to men and women.

It touches the most vital interests of both. The family, the relations

of husband and wife, the education of children, the rules and customs

of society, and the arrangements of practical life will directly depend

upon, or be affected by, the answer which we give to the question, Is

virtue an advantage to all human beings? Can one moral law exist for

all?

Truth must always be accepted. No personal prejudice, no habit of

education, must stand in the way of clearly established truth. It is

the greatest sin we can commit to try to believe a lie because the

truth seems unpleasant, difficult, or contrary to prejudices. If it be

true that chastity is a right thing for women, but a wrong thing for

men, then the truth, with all its consequences, must be accepted. If,

however, this statement be false--if it be a prejudice of education,

a result of evil customs, the most fruitful source of misery to the

human race--then the truth, with all its consequences, must equally

be accepted. In seeking truth on this subject it is indispensable to

examine its practical aspect closely, to study the facts on which

existing customs are based, and disentangle the confused web of truth

and falsehood, out of which has grown the present widespread belief

that a young man cannot lead a chaste life to the age of twenty-five

without injury to his health.

That _some_ limit to the indulgence of natural instinct is necessary

in both sexes will be evident from the early age at which the sexual

movement commences, as well as from the length of time required for

its completion. It is not only in children of twelve and fourteen

that this instinct is already strongly marked, it may be observed at

a much earlier age. Numberless instances of juvenile depravity come

under the observation of the physician, and such gross cases are

only exaggerations of the refined instincts veiled by modesty and

self-respect, which are gradually growing in all healthy children.

That this mental instinct tends to express itself in the unformed

bodies of children corrupted by evil example, we have only too abundant

proof. A chronic evil of boarding-schools, of asylums, and of all

places where masses of children are thrown together without wise moral

supervision, is the early habit of self-abuse. Long before the boy or

girl is capable of becoming a parent, this dangerous habit may be

formed. It is not necessarily the indication of a coarse nature. It is

observable in refined, intellectual, and even pious persons, as a habit

carried on from childhood, when it was begun in ignorance, or taught,

perhaps, by servants, or caught from companions. Many a fine nature in

both man and woman has been wrecked, by the insidious growth of this

natural temptation, into an inveterate habit. The more common result,

however, of this vicious practice is a premature stimulation of the

sexual nature, which throws youth of both sexes either into habits of

early licentiousness or into a morbid condition of mental impurity. An

experienced physician[33] writes: ‘The earliest and most frequent cause

of disorder of the generative apparatus is the practice of self-abuse,

the tendency to which is strongest about the age of puberty....

Excitement is increased by the conversation and thoughts which are

indulged in, and it is apt to be unchecked by the moral control which

has not yet acquired its proper influence. Moreover, lads are often

induced to the pernicious practice by their companions, who may be as

ignorant as themselves of the wrong and mischief they are doing. It

would be a very good thing if those who have the charge of boys were

less scrupulous in giving warning upon this matter. Much trouble and

anxiety might be spared by timely advice seriously and kindly given....

An extensive acquaintance, through years with those who have just come

from our schools, has impressed the importance of this matter upon me.’

Dangers thus existing which may threaten the youngest child, the

necessity of guidance, the formation of good habits, and the

inculcation of self-respect even in childhood is evident. At an

early age self-control can be taught. It is a principle which grows

by exercise. The more the brain asserts its power of Will over the

automatic actions of the body, the stronger may become the control of

reason over sensations and instincts.

The neglect of children at this early age is a direct cause of the

corruption of the next stage of life. The lad of sixteen or seventeen

is in the first flush of early manhood. He is physically capable

of becoming a father, although entirely unfit to be so. Some years

are required to strengthen his physical powers. The advantage of

the self-control of absolute chastity at this period of life is

unquestionable; every physiologist will confirm this statement. But

chastity is of the mind as well as of the body. The corruption of the

mind at this early age is the most fruitful source of social evil in

later life. The years from sixteen to twenty-one are critical years for

youth. If purity of life and the strength of complete self-control can

then be secured, there is every hope for the future. Every additional

year will enlarge the mental capacity, and may confirm the power of

Will. The strong man is able to take the large views of sex, its uses,

aims, and duties, which are considerations too abstract for the

child-man, impelled by bewildering sensations. If at this early age

he falls, he is too often lost. Physical passion, which reaches its

maximum (roughly speaking) at twenty-seven, can only be controlled and

exalted if, at the age when chastity is a positive physical benefit,

the great mental principle of self-control has gained mastery over the

nature. If at this period the power of Will has been gained to retain

self-respect and resist temptation, such habit of self-government is

the safeguard of youth. It is the only foundation on which the early

years of life can be safely based, the only way by which those habits

of virtue can be established which strengthen the constitution and

enable it to grow into the fullest vigour of manhood. If, however,

the child has been injured by habits or associations which produce

precocity and irritability of function, he will inevitably fall into

vice in the earliest years of manhood; his power of resistance is gone,

and every temptation drags him down.

One of our ablest surgeons has left on record the following weighty

advice:[34] ‘The boy has to learn that to his immature frame every

sexual indulgence is unmitigated evil. Every illicit pleasure is a

degradation to be bitterly regretted hereafter.... If a boy is once

fully impressed that _all_ such indulgences are dirty and mean, and,

with the whole force of his unimpaired energy, determines he _will_

not disgrace himself by yielding, a very bright and happy future is

before him.... Where, as is the case with a very large number, a young

man’s education has been properly watched, and his mind has not been

debased by vile practices, it is usually a comparatively easy task to

be continent, and requires no great or extraordinary effort, and every

year of voluntary chastity renders the task easier by the mere force

of habit.... It is of vital importance that boys and young men should

know, not only the guilt of an illicit indulgence of their dawning

passions, but also the _danger_ of straining an immature power, and the

solemn truth that the _want_ will be an irresistible tyrant only to

those who have lent it strength by yielding; that _the only true safety

lies in keeping even the thoughts pure_.... It is easier to abstain

altogether than to be occasionally incontinent, and then continent

for a period.... If a young man wished to undergo the acutest sexual

suffering he could adopt no more certain method than to propose to be

incontinent, with the avowed intention of becoming continent again when

he had “sown his wild oats.” The agony of breaking off a habit which

so rapidly entwines itself with every fibre of the human frame is such

that it would not be too much to say to any youth commencing a career

of vice: “You are going a road on which you will _never_ turn back.

However much you may wish it the struggle will be too much for you. You

had better stop now. It is your last chance.”’

Our early neglect of youth is, then, one of the great causes of social

immorality. The most earnest thought of parents should be given to the

means of securing influences which will strengthen and purify their

children in the early years of life. Evil outward temptations abound,

but they must not be allowed to exercise their effects unchecked; they

must be counteracted by more powerful influences for good.

The physical growth of youth, the new powers, the various symptoms

which mark the transition from childhood into young manhood and

womanhood, are often alarming to the individual. Yet this important

period of life is entered upon, strange to say, as a general rule,

without parental guidance. Parents shrink from their duty. They have

failed to become their children’s confidential friends. In every other

respect the physical and mental wants of their children are attended

to. Suitable food is provided, and the various functions of digestion

and assimilation carefully watched; the healthy condition of the skin,

of the muscles, of all the various functions of the body provided for,

and intellectual education carried on, but the highest physical and

mental function committed to the human being, whose guidance requires

the wisest foresight, the most delicate supervision, is left to the

chances of accident or the counsels of a stranger. Measureless evil

results from the neglect of parents to fortify their children at this

age.

Although direct and impressive instruction and guidance in relation to

sex is not only required by the young, but is indispensable to their

physical and moral welfare, yet the utmost caution is necessary in

giving such guidance, in order that the natural susceptibilities of the

nature be not wounded. It is a point on which youth of both sexes are

keenly sensitive, and any want of tact in addressing the individual, or

any forcible introduction of the subject where the previous relations

of parent and child have not produced the trust and affectionate mutual

respect which would render communication on all serious subjects of

life a rational sequence in their relations, may do harm instead of

good. Where the conscience of the parent has only been awakened late

in life to this high duty to the child, the attempt to approach the

subject with the young adult is often deeply resented by both boy and

girl. In such cases the necessary counsel may be better given by a

stranger--by the physician, who will speak with acknowledged authority,

or by some book of impressive character, when such a one (much needed)

shall have been prepared. That this is a very imperfect fulfilment of

parental duty is true, but it is often all that the parent can attempt

where the high and important character of sex has not been understood

at the outset of family life, and thus not guided the past education of

the children.

It is important to recognise the parallelism which exists throughout

the physical organization of the two sexes, making them equal parts

of complete human nature--a parallelism which is too often lost sight

of, at this period of a young man’s life. In each of the two halves

of humanity, the sexual functions are adapted to the higher nature of

the human being. Provision is made in each sex for their control by

reason, this provision being made with greater or lesser elaborate

preparation in proportion to the relative importance of these functions

in each sex. This provision secures their conversion into a human

social force, instead of allowing them to remain a blind instinct,

as in the lower animals; for everything in humanity is subject to

the law of progress and higher growth. The generative function in

both sexes must be kept in a state of readiness for use. It has,

therefore, its special activity of production, maintaining its tissues

in healthy vigour throughout adult life. It is also marked with a

certain periodicity, which is stamped on all the more important vital

functions. It must, however, at the same time be subjected to reason

and converted into a human faculty. To secure this end, it contains

within itself natural provisions for its own independent well-being,

Nature having established the power of physical self-balance in this

important function by the natural, gradual, and healthy removal of

unemployed secretions in each individual. It thus becomes the subject

of reason, adapted to the higher aims of life, instead of a blind force

enslaving the human being.

An important illustration of this subjection of these functions to

reason, is referred to by the experienced surgeon, Mr. Acton, who

writes: ‘There exists no _greater error_, or one more opposed to

physiological truth, than the fear that atrophy or impotence might be

the result of chastity. I have never, after many years’ experience,

seen a single instance of atrophy from this cause. It is not a fact

that power is annihilated in well-formed adults leading a healthy life

and yet remaining continent. The function goes on to old age, sometimes

slowly, sometimes quickly, but very frequently only under the influence

of the will. No person need be deterred by this apocryphal fear from

living a chaste life. It is a device of the unchaste--a lame excuse

for their own incontinence, not founded on any physiological law. The

organs will take care that their action is not interfered with.’[35]

The very signs, however, of Nature’s provision for raising the lower

instinct into a human faculty, often create great uneasiness in the

young mind. It is at this important crisis that the delicate and

respectful counsel of the wise parent or physician is indispensable

to both boys and girls. The youth should be told that Nature will

help, not injure him at this important crisis of life, if he will be

true to his own higher nature. The young of both sexes should realize

that self-control of thought and action is essential. Every means of

hygienic, intellectual, and religious influence should be used to

direct and strengthen both mind and body. For both young men and young

women it is hygiene in its largest sense that should be prescribed and

enforced--viz., the guidance of the early vital forces, both physical

and mental, into natural beneficial directions. The youth who has been

saved from habits of self-abuse in childhood can now be saved from

habits of vice in manhood, and helped forward in that life of virtue

which alone will strengthen all his powers and make him worthy of

marriage.

That this view of the sexual function as a human force, to be governed

by reason, is the truth, and the modern theory of its being a blind

instinct enslaving the individual a falsehood, is proved in many

ways. We have the medical opinion of physicians in large practice,

the private and public testimony of individuals, the observation of

well-managed schools and colleges, of prisons, of communities, and the

social customs of various classes and different races. Let us glance at

some of these facts.

In rigid training for athletic sports, for boat-racing, prize-fighting,

etc., chastity is enforced as one of the means for attaining the

greatest possible amount of physical vigour and endurance. This fact,

observed in ancient times, is confirmed by modern experience.

When the health is seriously impaired, the same rule of sexual

abstinence is laid down. In a large proportion of these cases the power

of sex is not lost; the physical craving may even be increased, from

the irritability which often accompanies disturbed health. But the

fear of death acts as a counter force on the young mind, and rouses

it to unwonted efforts at self-command. No sacrifice is too great to

escape death, to regain health, and take part once more in ordinary

life. Temptations are avoided, healthy regime adopted, and the young

man, taking a great deal of outdoor exercise, leads for months an

absolutely chaste life, with the greatest possible advantage to his

health. Such cases may be constantly noted in foreign health resorts,

and amongst a class of cases the most difficult to reform--viz.,

dissipated young men who have been perverted from childhood by a state

of society so universally corrupt that it cannot happily be paralleled

yet, in England or America.

It is well known that the early ancestors of our vigorous German race

guarded the chastity of their youth until the age of twenty-five, as

the true method of increasing their strength, enlarging their stature,

and enabling them to become the progenitors of a vigorous race.

The opportunity of wide observation enjoyed by the headmasters of

public schools, and all engaged in education, lends great weight to

their testimony. The master of over 800 boys and young men states: ‘The

result of my personal observation, extending over a great many years,

is, that hard exercise in the open air is, in most cases, an efficient

remedy against vicious propensities. A large number of our young men

thus make a law unto themselves, and pass the period of their youth in

temperance and purity till they have realized a position that enables

them to marry.’ Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, has given similar testimony.[36]

In primitive Christian communities, and many country and village

populations uncorrupted by the stimulants of luxury, we observe the

advantage of chastity to the health of youth. In these simple, healthy

societies the strong public sentiment of the village, combined with

outdoor life, preserves the honesty of the young men until the time of

early marriage. The result is the growth of a vigorous, healthy race.

Our recognition of the possibility, as well as advantage, of chastity

to the young is further strengthened by a knowledge of the healthy

self-control exercised by men in the prime of life. After the age of

thirty, the unnatural life of celibacy is a difficult exercise of mind

and body, far more difficult than it is to uncorrupted youth. The

intimate experience, however, of every observant man and woman can

recall constant instances of the honourable fidelity of husbands to

their marriage vow during the protracted illness of their wives; and

the majority of our countrymen would consider it an insult to suppose

that when a new-born child is laid in their arms, and the wife leans

for support during her period of weakness upon her husband’s love, that

he betrays her love and trust during those solemn epochs of family life.

To private knowledge is added the weight of solemn public testimony

from men of ardent temperament who have reached the full vigour of

life in the practice of entire chastity. Every one who listened to

the weighty words of Père Hyacinthe, spoken in St. James’s Hall

before a crowded audience a few years ago, received the proof of

the co-existence of vigorous health with stainless virtue. Similar

testimony, called forth by the false teaching and dangerous tendencies

of the present time, has been given by many others, proving the

principle that the human sexual passion when uncorrupted, does not

enslave the man; that the possibility of perfect health and perfect

virtue is the natural endowment of every human being.

A modern writer of unsurpassed genius, Honoré de Balzac (whose writings

are injurious because they are such wonderfully vivid representations

of horrible social disease) was himself a man of singularly chaste

life, and attributes his power to that fact. Brought up by his father

in strict self-control, his power of Will was not destroyed; he

preserved his respect for women, his belief in noble love. His intimate

friend thus writes of him: ‘Above all he insisted on the necessity

of absolute purity of life, such as the Church prescribes for monks.

“That,” said he, “develops the powers of the mind to the highest

degree, and imparts to those who practise it unknown faculties. For

myself, I accepted all the monastic conditions necessary for workers.

One only passion carried me out of my studious habits--it was a passion

for outdoor observation of the manners and morals of the _faubourg_

where I lived.”’

Strong testimony as to the compatibility of chastity and health is

furnished by the Catholic priesthood. Although it is well known that

there are large numbers of men who break their vow, and men who should

never have entered the priesthood, it is also well known as a positive

fact that vast numbers of men are found in every age and country who

honestly maintain their vow, and who, by avoidance of temptation, by

direction of the mind to intellectual pursuits and devotion to great

humanitarian objects, pass long lives in health and vigour. The effect

on the world of enforced celibacy is, of course, disastrous; but

the power that has been gained by the institution of the priesthood

is indubitable, and the one object here insisted on--viz., the

compatibility of physical health with the observance of chastity--is

proved by it on a large scale.

The Shaker communities of New Lebanon and other settlements contain

a large number of middle-aged as well as elderly men, who live an

absolutely celibate life and enjoy excellent health.[37] The same is

true of Moravians, etc.

The possibility of controlling this great human instinct is further

shown by the experience of women. We see that under the effect of

training to a moral life and the action of public opinion a great

body of women in our own country constantly lead a virtuous life,

frequently in spite of physical instincts as strong as those of men,

and always in spite of mental instincts still more powerful. That the

feeling of sex regarded as a mental passion is even stronger in women

than in men must be evident to all who give to the word ‘strength’ its

true signification--the signification of mental as well as physical

phenomena in proportion to the powers of the individual. The demands

of women are greater than those of men; they desire more and more

the thought and devotion of those they love. They often display a

persistent fidelity, terrible in its earnestness, when they have had

the misfortune to become attached to an unworthy object. The weak

virtue of the mass of women, exposed to constant temptation, indicates

the insatiable craving of the woman’s heart for love. It is never

at rest; it always needs its objects, and when these affections are

degraded from their high purpose and defrauded of their legitimate

objects, they become the greatest obstacle to human progress. No

solution of the difficult problem of sexual relationships is possible,

until the complete parallelism (not identity) of the sexual nature in

the two sexes is recognised, and the significance of woman’s mental

necessities understood. Women themselves must learn the meaning of

the high nature that God has given them, and perceive how great a

responsibility rests upon them in the mighty work of raising the human

race out of the old thraldom of lust into the reign of love. That large

numbers of women, so richly endowed with the high principle of sex,

retain their health whilst leading celibate lives, is one more proof

of that adaptation of this principle to the higher character of our

nature, which transforms a simple brute instinct into a grand human

force.

The foregoing facts distinctly prove that the exercise of the sexual

powers is not indispensable to the health of human beings; that men of

all ages can live in full vigorous health without such exercise; and

that to the young it is an immense physical advantage that they should

so live. This is the important principle to be first established.

The subjects of temptation, of customs, of artificial wants, etc.,

are other questions, to be considered by themselves. Thought will

be inevitably confused, and the important practical arrangements

of the future hopelessly perplexed, if all sorts of questions are

jumbled together; if practical difficulties, social phases, temporary

phenomena, are allowed to obscure or completely hide the great guide

of humanity--Eternal Truth. A principle clearly established is that

portion of truth needed for present guidance. It must be thoroughly

understood and resolutely held to, as the only clue which can guide us

slowly through the dark labyrinth of error, vice, and misery. Such a

guiding principle is found in the essential nature of the human sexual

faculty--its distinctive power of self-control. The more this principle

is considered, understood, and valued, the more it will be found that

it contains the power of purifying society, enlightening legislation,

and raising our status as a nation.

The aim, therefore, of all wise parents should be to secure those

influences which will preserve the purity of their sons until the age

of twenty-five, when marriage, as a rule, should be made possible

and encouraged. This is the wise practice, derived from experience,

applicable to all nations living in temperate climes. Earlier marriage

may sometimes be wise, but it is not the broad rule. That the

individual may remain in health until a later period and throughout

life has been proved, but it is a national loss that the best years of

vigorous manhood should not stamp themselves upon the future generation.

The unmarried life after thirty years of age is often injured in mind

or body. The exceptions arising from character or occupation, from

religious enthusiasm or devotion to some great work, do not refute

the general statement. It must necessarily be so. As sex is a natural

and most powerful human force, there is risk of injury in permanently

stifling it. Marriage being its true method of expression and

education, the character is injured through want of this development.

It is only through honourable marriage that the beneficial growth of

manly character of mind and body can be attained. The illegitimate

exercise of the sexual powers is a source of direful social and

national evil, and requires those strong restraints of both law and

custom which help to educate a nation. No fear that some individuals,

unable to marry, may suffer in their private lives, can for one moment

justify the establishment of practices or the sanctioning of customs

which are destructive to the general welfare. Far more evil, mental and

physical, arises to the race from the effects of licentiousness than

from any effects of abstinence.

CHAPTER IV

_Methods by which Sexual Morality may be Promoted_

The important question will present itself to everyone who realizes

the gravity of the dangers which we have now exposed: What practical

steps can be taken to secure the truer standard of morality which

will remodel the education of youth? This weighty question can only

gradually receive a complete answer, as the intelligence of our age

awakens to the fact that the attainment of true sexual morality is

the fundamental principle of national growth. The first indispensable

basis of all efforts for practical reform is the acceptance of a true

principle of action. The great guiding principle now laid down is this:

that Vice--that is, the illegitimate exercise of the sexual faculty,

regardless of religious conscience and the welfare of others--is not

essential to the constitution of the human being, but is the result

of removable conditions. The importance of this truth is immense. Its

acceptance or denial produces two diametrically opposite courses of

action--action in education, in society, and in legislation. It is

one of those abstract truths which are stronger than all facts, being

eternal instead of temporary, moulding practical action instead of

depending on it. The belief or denial of this truth may express itself

in varying forms, according to the age or country, according to the

more or less logical workings of a nation’s mind; but whether clearly

recognised in all its bearings, or blindly acted on in a confused and

near-sighted way, the results will always follow in the same direction.

The acceptance of this truth will always tend to diminish and gradually

destroy evil; its denial must inevitably intensify and extend evil.

It is the essential nature of truth or falsehood to express itself

in practical action. This tendency is overlooked by the majority of

human beings engaged in the eager pursuits of daily life, in business,

in household duties, in amusements, and the logical results of false

theories are, in practical life, often modified by the happy instincts

which blindly turn aside the inevitable tendencies of logical error;

but the truth or falsehood always remains as a great permanent force

at work from age to age. In considering the means of attaining to a

truer practice of morality, therefore, the spread of truth is a first

indispensable necessity and condition of future improvement. The great

truth to be recognised is the fact that male as well as female purity

is a necessary foundation of progressive human society. This important

subject must no longer be ignored. The time has come for its acceptance

by all experienced men and women. The necessity of upholding one

moral standard as the aim to be striven for, must become a fundamental

article of religious faith. Above all, Parents must realize the

tremendous responsibility which rests upon them to provide for the

healthy growth of the principles of sex in their children.

It will be seen, the more closely this subject is investigated, that

the thought and action of women as well as men, is indispensable to

social regeneration. On women of all classes rests a full measure of

responsibility for the present evil condition of sexual relations. No

class can throw off this responsibility. Women are equally responsible

with men for the deep corruptions of society. This is pre-eminently

a parents’ question, affecting the vital interests of the family and

the future of children in every relation of life; woman, from her

central position in the family as wife and mother, must know how to

use her immense influence wisely. To be wise, knowledge of truth is

essential, and the adult woman, the centre of home influence, must

acquire correct knowledge on every subject that concerns family life.

The nature and requirements of men and women is a subject on which a

woman needs correct knowledge, not only as a guide to the education of

the young child, but as a guide in the various duties of life. A woman

is mother always, not only of the infant, but of the growing and grown

man. A mother who has been able to secure the friendship of her son as

well as her daughter, can exercise a beneficial influence from youth

onwards which will be recognised with ceaseless gratitude in later

life.[38] The higher influence which women are intended to infuse into

sex makes the subject a holy one to the wise mother. She can approach

it in moments of sacred confidence with her children with a delicacy

and tender earnestness that wounds no natural reserve, but excites a

grateful reverence in the youth’s mind. The first falsehood, therefore,

that must disappear is the belief that the higher classes of women--the

cultivated, the refined, the virtuous--have nothing to do with sexual

vice; that they must remain ignorant of facts, and see nothing but what

it is pleasant to see. It is on this class of women, perhaps, more than

on any other one class of society that its future welfare depends.[39]

They are capable of broad views of truth, of insight, of ceaseless

devotion to the highest welfare of the race, to God, when once they

have learned to know what truth is; when they have realized the

actual facts of every-day life and observed the effects of prevalent

customs upon women as well as upon men. The task of regenerating

society by securing the healthy growth of the faculty of sex in their

children being, therefore, laid upon both parents, the indispensable

co-operation of the mother in this work is seen more clearly, as the

causes of sexual precocity and the triumph of the material nature over

love are studied more deeply.

The fact being established that the human being is not designed by

Providence to be the slave of passion, what are the causes which

produce that disease of licentiousness--as truly disease as drunkenness

or opium-eating--which we find to be more completely organized and more

audaciously justifying itself than at any previous time, the dangerous

peculiarity of the present age being that customs and habits, formerly

blindly followed, are now defended or legalized?

We shall find, on considering the influence at work on the human being

from childhood upward (laying aside for the moment the question of

heredity), obvious sources of corruption that help us to the solution

of this difficult problem. ‘The temptations of life’ to which our youth

succumb are no fixed things essential to human nature. They vary in

every age and country. They are changeable facts, removable evils,

perversions of natural tastes. The human race can grow out of license

into order, out of prostitution into marriage, out of lust into love,

as certainly as typhoid fever can be exterminated by pure water and

pure air. It is from childhood that the strong man is moulded gradually

into the hero--or the criminal. If the superior standard of morality

which is still to be found amongst us, be compared with the customs

widely diffused in many other countries, it will be seen how variable

the standard of morality is, and how dependent it is on social

circumstance--_i.e._, on removable conditions.[40] These corrupting

circumstances of life surround the individual at every stage of growth

from youth onwards. They are found in early habits and influences;

in mischievous school companions and studies; in vile literature,

books, advertisements, pictures; in indecent theatre, ballet, public

amusements; in opportunity and temptation; in drink and dissipated

companions; in perverted social sentiment, false medical advice,

delayed or unhappy marriage--these are the snares which meet the human

being, and which may gradually pervert the nature. Now, there is not

one of these facts that is an essential part of human nature. There is

not one that cannot be changed to good. Each one of the evils above

named is an evil to be attacked and vanquished, and the wise method of

doing this, is a distinct command and work of practical religion.

The following points bearing on the moral education of childhood

and youth must be considered by all parents who are convinced of

the saving value of sexual morality--viz., observation of the child

during infancy, acquirement of the child’s confidence, selection of

young companions, care in the choice of a school and of studies which

will not injure the mind, the formation of tastes, outdoor exercise,

companionship of brothers and sisters, the choice of physician, social

intercourse, and amusements. These various points require careful

consideration.

The earliest duty of the parent is to watch over the infant child. Few

parents are aware how very early evil habits may be formed, nor how

injurious the influence of the nurse often is to the child.[41] The

mother’s eye, full of tenderness and respect, must always watch over

her children. Self-respect cannot be too early inculcated. The keynote

of moral education is respect for the human body. The mother should

caution the child plainly not to touch or meddle with himself more than

is necessary; that his body is a wonderful and sacred thing, intended

for important and noble ends; that it must not be played or trifled

with, or in any way injured. Every thoughtless breach of delicacy

should be checked with a gentle gravity which will not repel or abash,

but impress the child.

This watchfulness over the young child, by day and night, is the first

duty to be universally inculcated. Two things are necessary in order to

fulfil it--viz., a clear knowledge of the evils to which the child may

be exposed, and tact to interpret the faintest indication of danger and

to guard from it without allowing the child to be aware of the danger.

Evils should never be presented to the young child’s mind. Habits must

be formed from earliest infancy, but reasons for those habits should

only be given much later. It is the parent’s intelligence which must

act for the child during very early life. This unavoidable necessity

is, at the same time, a cause of frequent failure in education, for

the reason that parents, through ignorance or egotism, fail to see

that they must study the nature of the child. The strong adult too

often fails in insight, and imposes its own methods and conclusions

upon a nature not susceptible of those methods and often not adapted

to those conclusions. This is really spiritual tyranny, and destroys

the providential relation which should exist between child and adult.

The parent should become the first and truest friend of the child. This

possibility and duty is a great parents’ privilege, too often unknown,

and yet it affects the whole future of the child. It is through the

love and confidence that exist between them that durable influence is

exerted. If the child naturally confides its little joys and sorrows to

the ever-ready and intelligent sympathy of the mother, if it grows up

in the habit of turning to this warm and helpful influence, the youth

will come as naturally with his experiences and plans to the parent as

did the little child; the evils of life, which must be gradually known,

will then be encountered with the aid of experience. The form of the

relation between parent and child changes, not its essence. The essence

of the relationship is trust: the fact that the parent’s presence will

always be welcomed by the child; that in work or in play, in infancy or

youth, the parent shall be the first natural friend. It is only then

that wise, permanent influence can be exerted. It is not dogmatism, nor

rigid laws, nor formal instruction, that is needed, but the formative

power of loving insight and sympathy. It is only when this providential

relation exists that the parent can understand the life of the child

and exercise influence without harshness. With every step in life the

child’s horizon enlarges, and opportunities of good or temptations to

evil increase. The experiences of school-life, the companions selected,

the studies pursued, and the books read, introduce the child into the

wide world of practical life in miniature. All the circumstances of

school-life are of serious importance--an importance not sufficiently

realized in their bearing upon character, and in the responsibility

which rests with parents themselves, to mould those circumstances. The

child’s entrance upon school-life is his first plunge into the great

world beyond the family circle, his first serious contact with new

thoughts, customs, and standards--with a new code of morality; not the

formal morality of his professors, but the confused practical morality

of his school companions. Here he may meet with every kind of evil, of

which he had previously no conception, carried on in a crude, practical

form by those whom he naturally looks up to--his elder companions, who

are perhaps rich and clever, and whom he regards as ‘men.’ How is the

child strengthened to meet this grand new life, as it seems to him,

which entrances him with its novelty, its variety, and its vigour, and

which very often produces a feeling of kindly contempt for the narrow

home life?

Full confidence between parent and child is necessary in order that

all the child is learning may be known. This school world, unlike

the larger world, is directly under the possibility of parental

control. What parents, as a body, require, the teacher will endeavour

to provide. The material arrangements and regulations, as well as

the moral tone of any school to which a child is sent, must be

considered. It being remembered that the great vices of self-abuse and

fornication are the curse of our schools and colleges, all the direct

and indirect means must be sought for by which these vices can be as

rigidly excluded from our educational establishments as the vice of

thieving. School and college sentiment should be trained to regard them

as equally dishonourable and unmanly. They must be overcome chiefly

by moral means in connection with hygienic arrangements. The views

of the principal on the subject of sexual training, the character

of assistant-teachers, the water-closet and sleeping arrangements,

the amount of outdoor exercise secured, should all be studied by the

conscientious parent.

Some direct hygienic instruction and warning, suited to the age of

the child, should be given. It is a false and cruel delicacy which

ignores the great danger of schools, and sends an innocent child

utterly unprepared into a school society where corruption exists. ‘I

believe,’ writes an experienced teacher of lads, ‘that ninety-nine

hundredths of the immorality that prevails amongst young men originates

primarily in ignorance and perverted curiosity.’ He therefore lays

down the following practical rules for the hygienic instruction which

he deems indispensable: First, that the physiology of sex should be

carefully subordinated to general physiology and hygiene, and that it

should always be treated comparatively. Secondly, that all instruction

and examination should be oral and in class, no text-books being given

to the pupils, the utmost simplicity and plainness of speech being

employed, and only outline diagrams used as pictorial illustrations.[42]

The rational view of education--viz., the formation of character and

the establishment of well-balanced health, as fundamental objects to

which other things should be added--require such a revision of our

school system as will secure correct physical habits, and, above all,

mental purity. This sound basis of education must be insured in all

places where children congregate together. Careful arrangements to

promote these ends are equally necessary in boys’ and girls’ schools.

They promote alike true manliness and true womanliness.

The nature of the studies given to the young and the way in which

classical literature is taught require to be considered by parents. The

corrupt literature of antiquity tends to corrupt the youthful mind

as unavoidably as licentious modern literature. Its bearing on the

healthy growth of youth must be considered. The advantages of classical

education should be secured without employing works whose tendency

is to degrade the young mind. The contrary opinion is the prejudice

of custom. Our Catholic brethren have fully recognised the suicidal

policy of imbuing unformed minds with licentious literature, and the

Church has held more than one General Conference on the subject. No one

can doubt the excellence of their scholarship, and it is much to be

desired that a careful study of their methods in this respect should be

required from all instructors of youth. The impulse to such a change

should come from parents.

The dangers arising from vicious literature of any kind cannot be

overestimated by parents. Whether sensuality be taught by police

reports, or by Greek and Latin literature, by novels, plays, songs,

penny papers, or any species of the corrupt literature now sent forth

broadcast, and which finds its way into the hands of the young of all

classes and both sexes, the danger is equally real. It is storing the

susceptible mind of youth with words, images, and suggestions of vice

which remain permanently in the mind, springing up day and night in

unguarded moments, weakening the power of resistance, and accustoming

the thoughts to an atmosphere of vice. No amount of simple caution

given by parents or instructors suffices to guard the young mind from

the influence of evil literature. It must be remembered that hatred of

evil will never be learned by intellectual warning. The permanent and

incalculable injury which is done to the young mind by vicious reading

is proved by all that we now know about the structure and methods of

growth of the human mind. Physiological inquiry is constantly throwing

more light upon our mental as well as physical organization. We learn

that nutritive changes take place in the human brain by the effect of

objects which produce ideas; that permanent traces of these changes

continue through life, so that states or changes connected with

certain ideas remain stored up in the brain, capable of recall, or

presenting themselves in the most unexpected way. We see the importance

of the last impressions made on the brain at night, indicating the

activity and fixity of the cerebral changes of nutrition during the

quiescence of sleep. All that we observe of these processes shows us

that different physical changes are produced in the brain by different

classes of ideas, and that the moral sense itself may be affected by

the constant exercise of the brain in one direction or another, so that

the actual individual standard of what is right or what is wrong will

be quite changed, according to whether low or high ideas have been

constantly recorded in the retentive substance of the brain.

These important facts have a wide and constant bearing on education,

showing the really poisonous character of all licentious literature,

whether ancient or modern, and its destructive effect on the quality

of the brain. It is necessary, therefore, to prepare the young

mind to shrink repelled from the debasing literature with which

society is flooded, and which is one of the greatest dangers to be

encountered. The great help towards this object is the cultivation of

strong intellectual and moral tastes in children, the preoccupation

of the mind with what is good. Truth should be in the field before

falsehood. All children and youth are fascinated by narratives of

adventure, endurance, heroism, and noble deeds. The home library

should be selected in order to brace the mind and character, and

enlist the interest of the child or youth in what is manly and true.

Every child also has some special taste or tendency which can be

found out, if carefully looked for. It may be for art, for science,

for construction, for investigation, adventure, or beneficence;

but whatever it be, it may be made the means of intellectual and

moral growth. The special youthful tendency is of extreme value, as

indicating the direction in which a taste, even if slightly marked,

may be cultivated into a serious interest and become a powerful help

in the formation of character. The study of natural science and of all

pursuits which develop a love and observation of Nature are of great

value in education. Such pursuits have the additional advantage of

promoting life in the open air. The weighty testimony in favour of the

beneficial influence of outdoor exercises and amusements has already

been noted. All experience shows us that the calling of the great

muscular apparatus of the human body into constant vigorous life is an

indispensable means for securing the healthy, well-balanced growth of

the frame, and for preventing the premature development of the sexual

faculty. It is a subject worthy of the especial study of parents in

relation to the education of both sexes. Abundant exercise in the fresh

air, with total abstinence from alcoholic drink, may be considered the

two great physical aids to morality in youth.

The companions chosen by the child at school or the youth at college

are of extreme importance to the growth of character, and the exercise

of influence over this choice, without interfering with the freedom of

the child, is one of the greatest aids that a parent can render it.

The intimacy between those who are entering upon life together, and

who have the same future before them, must necessarily increase and

become a great fact in the young life; but it is essential that the

parent should know who these companions are, and the character of the

influence that will be exerted. If the parent be the friend of his

child, he can also be the friend of his friend. Tact and sympathy are

of the utmost value in welcoming and attracting the youthful friends,

and the wise parental care thus exercised towards offspring, extends

necessarily beyond the individual home.

The attention of the parent must always be ready to observe the signs

of growing sex in sons as well as daughters. Numberless indications,

which none but the mother can note, warn her of that approaching

crisis of early manhood, now so fatal to our youth. No wise mother

observes this change without a deepening of respect and tenderness,

and of infinite maternal yearning to strengthen, guide, and ennoble

her man-child. At this epoch is often thrown upon her an immense

responsibility--a responsibility so grave that it may involve the

ruin or salvation of her son--viz., the choice of his physician. The

importance of this choice cannot be over-estimated by the parent. The

young are easily alarmed about their health; they are at the same time

utterly unable to judge of their own condition; they have no knowledge

to guide them, no experience by which to measure their symptoms.

They place absolute confidence in their medical adviser; his opinion

and advice outweigh all other considerations and supersede all other

counsel. The parent must therefore realize that when a physician is

selected for the growing lad, an authority is placed over him which

may become stronger than the parental influence, and be henceforth the

most powerful support or antagonist in the moral as well as physical

guidance of the son.

If medical science were a positive science, as is mathematics, and

its professors able to apply its principles to daily life with the

certainty of geometrical propositions, it would be folly to do

otherwise than accept any medical opinion of established authority with

entire confidence. This, however, is not the case, and the members of

the medical profession would themselves be the last persons to lay

claim to the possession of absolute truth. As centuries roll on, one

medical school of opinion succeeds another, and theory after theory

is exploded by accumulating facts. It is therefore no new thing and

no subject of reproach to the self-sacrificing members of a noble

profession, that different opinions should exist amongst them, in

relation to subjects which affect that complex problem--human life.

Indeed, it would be an exception to a general rule did not such

difference exist. But we are now considering a subject so fundamental

in human welfare, so much wider than any class interest, that any

variety of opinion respecting it, is of vital importance to be noted,

and must be recognised by all intelligent persons. It must therefore be

thoroughly understood by all parents that there are now two distinct

classes of medical opinion existing amongst physicians. Each class

embraces men of high medical repute, but men who hold diametrically

opposite views in relation to the guidance of the sexual powers, the

one class considering Virtue, the other Vice, a necessity. Each class

of physicians is honest in opinion, clear-sighted, wishing well to

society; but the one class is far-sighted, the other near-sighted; the

one knows the omnipotence of Good, the other sees the triumph of Evil.

This diversity of opinion cannot remain as an abstract proposition,

but, like all opinion, it expresses itself in action. In medical advice

given to a youth, the slightest bias in one or another direction at

the starting-point of life will set him on one of two paths constantly

diverging to the right or wrong. One path leads to self-control,

enlarged mental and physical hygiene, chastity; the other to doubt,

yielding, fornication.

At this period of life, no uncertain advice should be given by the

physician. Support and guidance are required from him, and his counsel

must be strong, positive, and clear. The patient must be taught that

chastity, properly understood, is health. He must learn that the

indications of sex in early manhood are a notice that the new faculties

must be restrained--not exercised; that they give a warning to guard

against self-abuse and abuse of the other sex; that the great danger

to be dreaded is stimulation; that everything that can excite, whether

external or internal, must be studiously avoided. The vital fact must

be announced and powerfully brought home to him--that if he will keep

the mind pure, Nature will keep the body healthy. This mental strength

is his one great concern, to be secured in every possible way. There

must be no doubt in medical advice; it must ring like the words of

true science spoken by our distinguished surgeon to his students:[43]

‘Many of your patients will ask you about sexual intercourse, and

some will expect you to prescribe fornication. I would just as soon

prescribe theft or lying or anything else that God has forbidden....

Chastity does no harm to mind or body; its discipline is excellent;

marriage can be safely waited for, and among the many nervous and

hypochondriacal patients who have talked to me about fornication, I

have never heard one say that he was better or happier for it.’[44] The

radical importance of the medical advice given to youth will therefore

be evident to all parents who perceive the full bearing of the truths

contained in the preceding pages. No lesser consideration, no false

feeling of reserve, should ever prevent the parent from knowing to

which class of physicians the medical guidance of his son be intrusted.

An invaluable provision for the education of the principle of

sex, exists in the companionship of brothers and sisters. This

companionship, established by Nature, should be carefully promoted,

not thwarted. It is one of those provisions which make family life

the type of wider relationships, the true germ of society from which

national purity and strength should grow. Indeed, the more we study

the capabilities of the family in each of its varied aspects, the

more potent we perceive its influence to be, the greater the national

importance of maintaining the family in its proper power and dignity.

This natural grouping of boys and girls is Nature’s indication of the

right method of education, and the time will undoubtedly come when the

present monastic system of general education may be given up without

incurring grave disadvantages. That the familiar intercourse of boys

and girls in the kindly presence of their elders is of very great

advantage is an observation based upon wide experience. Isolation,

mystery, obstacles, produce craving curiosity, excitement--in fact,

morbid stimulus--instead of matter-of-fact acquaintance and natural

familiarity. Two opposite extremes tend to produce the precocity and

morbid condition of sentiment which now prevail--viz., either throwing

youth into the companionship of the vicious or rigidly separating

the sexes. Each extreme is against Nature, each is injurious to the

individual. The former practice is based upon the theory that sex is

an uncontrollable instinct which must run riot. The latter practice

proceeds from the theory that sex is a great evil, a temptation of

the devil, and as far as possible to be destroyed. The true principle,

however, consists in a recognition of the nobility of sex, and the

necessity--1st, of its slow development; 2nd, of its honourable

satisfaction.

Now, in the young and growing nature, sex may be richly satisfied by

spiritual refreshment and refined companionship. Conjugal relations

are not necessary to the very young in attaining true delight in

sex. On the contrary, false relations are an outrage. They violently

destroy the gradual unfolding of mental and physical joys, which alone

produces exquisite and lasting delight. A large amount of honourable

companionship between young men and women is of the utmost advantage in

strengthening and ennobling young manhood and womanhood. This valuable

result is only possible, however, as springing from the practice of

chastity; in connection with fornication it is impossible. Parents

are now justly afraid of the influences that may be brought to bear

on their children. Nevertheless, abundant honourable companionship

between the sexes is an important principle of future reform. Provide

the necessary condition of adult sympathy and influence, and the wider

the range of acquaintance can be made between boys and girls, between

uncorrupted young men and women, the better, the more valuable, will

be the results of such acquaintance. The possibility and practice of

natural familiar acquaintance between unmarried young men and women in

any society may be considered a test of the healthy human condition

of such society. Any society where it is considered necessary to keep

young people rigidly apart is a corrupt society, based upon principles

of national degeneracy instead of natural development.

The companionship of brothers and sisters is now early falsified by the

failure of parents to perceive its inestimable value, by separation

in studies and amusements, by false theories or corrupt habits,

through the influence of which the tie is weakened or perverted. The

friendship and affection, however, of these natural associates should

be sedulously promoted by companionship in studies, in music, in

outdoor pursuits and amusements. Into a family circle where brothers

and sisters were friends and companions, other boys and girls, other

young men and women, would naturally enter, the ennobling educational

influence would extend indefinitely, and those genuine sympathies which

should lead to marriage union, would gradually display themselves.

There is peculiar value in the influence of sisters. It is a special

mission of young women to make virtue lovely. As the mother realizes

all that such a high calling implies, as she fully understands the

meaning of Virtue--as distinguished from Innocence--and the methods

of clothing it in loveliness, the more she will perceive the noble

character of a daughter’s influence and its vital importance. In this

aspect small things become great through their uses. The principles of

dress become worthy of study; health, grace, liveliness and serenity,

sympathy, intelligence, conversational ability, accomplishments,

receive a new meaning--a consecration to the welfare of the human race.

To make brothers love virtue, to make all men love purity, through

its incarnation in virtuous daughters, is a grand work to accomplish!

The failure of young women in any country, to embody the beauty and

strength of virtue is one of the most serious evils that can befall a

State. The necessity of cultivating mental purity and respect for the

principle of sex exists as strongly in relation to girls as to boys,

and it is only by securing this mental purity that young women will

unconsciously address themselves to the higher rather than to the lower

instincts of their male companions.

The family home, carrying on its proper work, is no narrow circle of

selfish exclusiveness, but a living centre, attracting to itself and

widely radiating healthy social life. The moral influence of parents,

and particularly of the mother, as the centre of the household, extends

itself in two opposite directions--viz., in intercourse with the poorer

classes, through servants, tradespeople, benevolence, etc.; with the

richer, through social intercourse with equals. In both directions, her

influence will exert a direct bearing upon the moral education of the

young. The first and most important connection with the poorer classes

is through domestic servants. It is essential, from the outset of

family life, to select servants who will not injure the atmosphere of

home. The difficulty of doing this should be a warning voice to every

parent, and compel a careful search into the cause of this great and

growing difficulty. What does it mean--a widespread corruption through

the foundation of society, through the ranks of working women, so that

virtue, truth, fidelity, are hard to find? If so, what are the causes,

and what will be the influence exerted on the children of the family,

both at home and when they go out into the world, and are thrown into

unavoidable intercourse with this class of women? The more carefully

this problem is considered, the more intimate will the relations of

rich and poor be seen to be, the more vital their relations in respect

to the great question of morality, the more imperative the duty of

every mother to take a personal interest in her servants, to exert an

ennobling influence upon them, and to consider the children of her

poorer neighbours as well as her own, if only for the sake of her

own children. The family is a centre of affection, and every servant

should share in this life. It is wrong to retain a young servant

in a household without entering into her joys and sorrows, being

acquainted with her family and friends, providing her with honourable

amusements, and helping her to grow. In connection with this branch of

our subject there are two important principles that should be acted

on by intelligent women. The first is the necessity of educating the

sentiment of sex in girls into a self-controlling force, conscious of

the weighty responsibility which its great influence involves. The

second principle is the resolute abolition of an outcast class of

women. Christian civilization can acknowledge no pariah class, but

only erring individuals of either sex to be helped to a nobler life.

Equally important is the influence exerted by parents as members of

society on their own class, thus helping to form public opinion,

which is the foundation of law as well as custom. The moral tone of

general society at present is a source of great injury to the young.

The wilful ignoring of right and wrong in sex; the theory that it is a

subject not to be considered; the custom of allowing riches, talents,

agreeable manners, to atone for any amount of moral corruption; the

arrangement of marriage on a commercial basis, material, not spiritual,

considerations being of chief importance; and the deplorable delay

of marriage in men until the period of maximum physical vigour is

past--all contribute inevitably to the formation of a corrupt social

atmosphere, equally injurious to the moral health of men and women. The

purest family influence contends with difficulty against this general

corruption. After the period of childhood, society becomes a powerful

educator of young men and women. The seductions exercised by women and

by men bear upon our youth of both sexes in various ways, under widely

different aspects, but always with the same degrading tendencies,

with the same unequal contest between inexperienced innocence and

practised vice. Seeing how the highest aims of parental education

are constantly shipwrecked by the influence of society, it becomes a

necessity on the part of parents to change the tone of society. In

this great work women quite as much as men must think and act. Two

fundamental principles must be steadily held in view in this great aim:

First, the discouragement of licentiousness; second, the promotion of

early marriage. The methods of discouraging licentiousness in society

require the gravest consideration of all parents, and emphatically of

all married women. It is a subject so delicate, and yet so vital, that

it must be treated with equal care and firmness, and the problem can

only be solved by combined action. To admit men or women of licentious

lives or impure inclinations to the home circle, or to receive them

with welcome honour or cordiality in society, is a direct encouragement

to vice and an equal discouragement to virtue.[45] Confirmed Vice

must not be brought into intimate relations with young Virtue. It is

a crime, a stupidity, to do so. On the other hand, no inquisitorial

investigation of private life is desirable or permissible. A great duty

also exists towards the erring and the vicious, towards all those who

have oftentimes fallen into vice rather than voluntarily chosen it, who

are the victims of circumstances, of gradual unforeseen deterioration.

These fellow-beings demand the tenderest pity, the strongest sympathy,

the wisest help. Clever or frivolous, unstable or hardened, charming

or repellent, they are still precious human creatures, and the insight

of large sympathy--that most powerful influence which Providence has

intrusted to us--should be extended to all; but such sympathy can only

be exerted by the experienced, the strong, and the right way of doing

this must be sought for. One duty is perfectly clear: No persons of

acknowledged licentious life should be admitted to the intimacy of

home; no such persons should be welcomed with honour in society, no

matter what lower material or intellectual advantages may be possessed.

Their acquaintance is even more to be dreaded for sons than for

daughters. The corrupt conversation so general amongst immoral men is a

source of great evil to the young. As the perusal of licentious books

marks the first step in mental degradation, vicious talk is often the

second decided advance downward.

The moral meanness of enslavement to passion, of selfish disregard

to one’s weaker fellow-creatures exhibited by the profligate, should

always be recognised by the parent. Consent should never be given to

the union of an innocent child with a profligate. This plain dictate

of parental love, this evident duty of the experienced and virtuous to

the young and innocent, is strangely disregarded. Material advantages

in such cases are allowed to outweigh all other considerations.

Parents fail to recognise that the only source of permanent happiness

must arise from within, from spiritual qualifications; they fail to

recognise the inevitable effect of a corrupt nature upon a fresh young

creature linked to it in the closest companionship. Thus, in the

most solemn crisis of human life, the parent may betray the child.

It is not only the individual child that is betrayed, but the rising

generation also. On a previous page, the numerous external corrupting

circumstances have been mentioned which gradually degrade the

individual, but the subject of inherited qualities, of the inherited

tendency to sensuality, was not then dwelt upon. The transmission of

this tendency in a race is, however, a weighty fact, which must be

distinctly noted in this connection. Change in the tendencies of a race

can only be slowly wrought out in the course of generations. A most

important step in this direction is the union of virtuous daughters

with men of upright--or in the present day, it may be said, of

heroic--moral life. The effect upon offspring produced by the noble and

intense love of one man for one woman, with resulting circumstances,

would in the course of generations produce an hereditary tendency to

virtue instead of to sensuality. The known resolve of parents never to

consent to the union of their children with men of licentious habits

would of itself prove a valuable aid in regenerating society. Honour to

virtue, expressed in this sacred and at the same time most practical

manner, would be an encouragement, a reward, an incitement to all that

is noblest in human nature; it would be a standard to guide youth, a

real disinfectant of corrupt society.

The second principle to be kept steadily in view is the encouragement

of early marriage. A statesman, writing a generation ago on the causes

in the past, which have contributed to the prosperity of England,

says: ‘The lower and working classes are an early and universally

marrying people; this sacred habit is one which, while it has secured

the virtue and promoted the happiness of the country, has multiplied

its means and extended its power, and constituted Britain the most

powerful and prosperous Empire of the world.’[46] A quaint old writer

has said: ‘The forbidding to marry is the doctrine of devils.’ The

universal testimony of experience may be summed up in the words of

Montesquieu: ‘Who can be silent when the sexes, corrupting each other

even by the natural sensations themselves, fly from a union that ought

to make them better, to live in that that always renders them worse?

It is a rule drawn from nature, that the more the number of marriages

is diminished, the more corrupt are those who have entered into that

state; the fewer married men, the less fidelity is there in marriage.’

All short-sighted Governments that impose unnatural restrictions upon

marriage are compelled, by the increase of bastardy and its attendant

evils, to repeal such restrictions. Grohman, speaking of the causes of

the present immorality of the Tyrolese, says: ‘Very lately only has the

Austrian Government annulled the law which compelled a man desirous

of marriage to prove a certain income, and, further, to be the owner

of a house or homestead of some kind, before the license was granted.

Next in importance is the lax way in which the Church deals with

licentious misconduct, it being in her eyes a minor iniquity expiated

by confession.’ The obstacles to marriage in the military German Empire

must be regarded as one of the causes of that moral corruption which

we now observe in a country once so distinguished for home virtues--a

corruption which threatens to shake the foundations of the great German

race.

Early marriage, however, without previous habits of self-control,

is unavailing to raise the tone of society. Marriage is no cure

for diseased sex, and early licentiousness is really (as has been

shown) disease. In those parts of the Continent where the lowest

sexual morality exists, marriage is regarded as the opportunity for

constant and unlimited license. The young man, therefore, is not

allowed to marry (by the law of social custom) until he is over thirty

years of age. If his health has been impaired by licentiousness, he

is enjoined to resort less frequently to prostitutes, or to take a

mistress; but marriage is positively forbidden by his medical advisers

and discouraged by his relations. By the age of thirty his health

is either completely broken down, and marriage, therefore, out of

the question, or, having passed the most dangerous age of passion

without breaking down, it is judged that his physical health will

hold out under the opportunities of married life. The result of this

system is inevitable. Marriage, being regarded as the legalization

of uncontrolled passion, is so exercised until satiety ensues.

Satiety is the inevitable boundary of all simply material enjoyments.

Self-control being entirely wanting, the spiritual possibilities of

marriage are unknown; social duty in respect to sex is a vague dream,

not a reality. Physical satiety can only be met by variety; hence

universal infidelity--destruction of the highest ends of marriage, the

dethronement of the mother, the deterioration of the father, and the

failure of the family influence as the first element in the growth of

the nation.

The same important truth is exemplified in the social condition of

our great Indian Empire. There the custom of early, even infantine,

marriage co-exists with a licentiousness truly appalling in its

strength and character.[47] Lads of sixteen, thoroughly corrupted in

childhood, become the fathers of a degenerate race, the girl-mothers

being the hopeless slaves of simple physical instincts. Early marriage

is the safeguard of society only when the self-control of chastity

exists, a self-government which is essential to the formation of manly

character as well as conducive to vigorous health. With the acceptance

of this essential condition, the aim of all wise parents will be to

secure for their children the great blessing of early marriage, to

provide for them opportunities of choice, and to promote the design

of Providence that the young man and young woman suited to each other

shall together gain the wider experience of life.

This proposition is always met by a host of social difficulties which

perplex the inquirer, and finally quiet the conscience of society into

a passive acquiescence in evil customs. These difficulties, however,

must be met and overcome. It is cowardly not to face them, and weak not

to vanquish them. Wise early marriage is the natural and true way out

of disorder and license into the providential order of human existence.

The first condition of improvement is to accept this plan as a living

faith, not an abstract ideal; to consider how difficulties can be

removed, not be cowed by them; and to study the possibilities, not the

impossibilities. It leads to diametrically opposite practical action,

whether we dwell upon the advantages of a certain course of life and

strive in every way to attain it, or whether we lose ourselves in

doubts and discouragements. ‘Put your shoulder to the wheel, and call

upon Hercules to help,’ is the only true plan now, as in the days of

Æsop. It is a matter of every-day experience that if we resolutely

determine to do a thing, and steadily apply the common-sense and

intelligence (the germs of which exist in every human being) to its

accomplishment, success will follow.

The difficulties urged are the foolishness of first love; the

impossibility of providing for a family; the craving for wild

adventure, excitement, change. These are the spectres which bar the

entrance to the right way of life. But such arguments are all false.

They are founded on the sandy basis of removable conditions--on

false methods of education, narrow family exclusiveness, on lack

of self-control, vicious customs, and perverted tastes. All sound

argument, based on the permanent facts of human nature, enjoins us to

provide for early marriage as the basis of social good. The young man

accustomed from boyhood to mix freely with young women under honourable

conditions, is no longer bewildered by the first woman he meets, whilst

the free, friendly companionship, secured by the family circle with its

wide connections, has supplied a want that his growing nature craves;

his taste and judgment have grown and strengthened, and he is no longer

the victim of baseless fantasies. Accustomed to free association with

young women of his own class, he is able at an early age to know his

own mind and make a wise selection of his future partner. To the young

woman an early marriage is the natural course of life; to this end she

tends, and, consciously or unconsciously, prepares herself to secure it

according to the requirements of society. Her unperverted taste is for

the young man a little older than herself--a companion she can admire,

respect, and, love--but still a companion, not a father. If taught

by the silent though still powerful voice of society that harmony of

character, of aims, of temperament--_i.e._, mental attraction--is the

indispensable foundation of great and lasting happiness in marriage;

that material advantages are secondary to this unspeakable blessing;

that thrift, knowledge of household economy, power of creating an

attractive home, are essential to the attainment of this great good,

then her instincts, by an inevitable law of nature, will tend to the

acquirement of these qualifications. If, on the contrary, she feels,

through the influence of society (still unexpressed), that physical

effects are the things chiefly sought for, that physical charm or

the power exercised by corporeal sex is the chief or only possession

that draws attention to her, then, by the same inevitable law, she

will strive to exercise this physical power, and the means of doing

so will become the all-absorbing occupation of an ever-increasing

number of young women. As already stated, the direct result of the

mastery of young men by irresistible physical instinct will be to

create a necessity in young women for dress which will bring physical

attractions into prominence or supply their deficiency. The craving

for riches and luxury, the ignorance of economy, so often urged as an

obstacle to marriage, are the inevitable results of licentiousness,

which strengthens and cultivates exclusively material desires and

necessities. Children should look forward to beginning life as simply

as their parents began it, but with the added advantages of education.

It is a totally false principle that they should expect to begin where

their parents left off. Filial honour for their parents’ lives and

inherited vigour would alike lead them to commence life with extreme

simplicity. The power of rendering such simplicity attractive would

prove that they had acquired the refinement and breadth of view which

is the result of true culture instead of being enervated by luxury.

They would thus, whilst beginning life as did their parents, begin

it, nevertheless, from a vantage-ground, the result of their parents’

labours. Each generation would thus make a solid gain in life instead

of encountering the destructive results which always attend the strife

for material luxury.

There are many important points bearing on this vital question of early

marriage--such as the exercise of self-control in married life and the

teaching of sound physiology, which is needed to reconcile marriage

with foresight--whose discussion would be out of place in the present

essay. But that the topic must be thoroughly and wisely considered by

parents resolved to aid one another in securing this inevitable reform,

is certain. The increasing tendency to delay marriage is so serious

an evil, that methods for checking this tendency must be found if our

worth as a nation is to continue. The early and solemn betrothal of

young people is an old custom now fallen into disuse. The possibility

of its readoption as a beneficial social practice, with its duration,

duties, and privileges, is worthy of serious consideration.

We have seen that the careful guidance of youth in relation to the

faculty of sex, an improvement in the tone of society, and provision

for early marriage, are fundamental points which should engage the

earnest thought of every mother. It would be, however, a most serious

mistake to suppose that the methods of carrying out these principles

devolve upon the mother only. It is too frequently the case that the

father, absorbed in outdoor pursuits, regards the indoor life as

exclusively the business of his wife, and takes little or no part in

the education of his children; but no true home can ever be formed

without the mutual aid of father and mother. The division of labour

may be different, but the joint influence should ever be felt in

this closest of partnerships. As the wise wife is the most trusty

confidant of the general business life of the husband, so he is the

natural counsellor and support in all that concerns the occupations,

amusements, society, and influence of his home. No home can be a happy

one, if the father’s keenest interest and enjoyment do not centre in

his family life. There are, however, special duties to the family

required from the father, owing to his position as a citizen, and

these hold an intimate relation to the future of his children. A large

view of home duty must necessarily lead to a fulfilment of citizen

duty. There are few men who, in their special business or occupation,

do not possess large opportunities for encouraging a nobler idea

respecting the relations of men and women than now prevails; few

who cannot show their respect for virtue and in some way discourage

vice. Men, not only as fathers, but as educators of youth--clergymen,

physicians, employers of labour--hold an immense power in their hands

for raising the tone of a community into which their sons and daughters

must soon enter, and through the ceaseless temptations of which the

effects of the most careful family education may be destroyed. No

occupation can stand isolated from the rest of life; the interlinkings

are innumerable. The man who throws a temptation in the way of a weaker

neighbour, or ignores the struggles of his dependents, or fails to

speak the encouraging word to those whom he influences, may be placing

a pitfall in the way of his own son and daughter.

A mighty power which fathers hold in trust for the future of their

children, is the character of the legislation which they establish or

sanction. It is almost inconceivable how intelligent and well-meaning

individuals, knowing the weakness of human nature and its inevitable

growth towards good or evil through circumstances, can fail to see

the immense moral bearing of legislation. The laws of a country are

powerful educators of the rising generation. They reach all classes;

their influence is a national one, silently exercising a never-ceasing

effect on the community. Every new act of legislation is a power

which will work much more strongly upon the young than the old. The

adult who makes the law has grown up to complete manhood under other

influences; he is moulded by the laws of a previous generation, and no

new legislative action can change his fixed character. It is the young

and unformed who will grow in the direction made easiest to them by our

laws. Whether the subject of legislation be the increase of standing

armies, the promotion of the liquor traffic, the regulation of factory

labour, the arrangement of national education, or the establishment of

railways--these subjects affect the moral condition of a people. It

would be difficult to find a subject of legislation which has not some

moral issue, more or less directly connected with it, and which will

not influence the rising generation more powerfully than the generation

that establishes the law. Legislation, therefore, has an inevitable

and most important bearing upon the welfare of the family, and must

be considered in relation to its effect upon the youth of the nation.

Every mother has a right to ask this from the legislators of a country.

No parental legislator should ever lose sight of the central family

point of view in legislation--viz., How can good conquer evil? How can

it be made easier for children to grow up virtuous than vicious?

The power of the human race to place itself under any restrictions

which its welfare requires, has already been shown in the control which

society exercises over the intense craving of hunger. Strong as the

faculty of sex is, its abnegation does not destroy the individual as

does starvation from lack of food. This instinct, therefore, cannot

be considered more imperative than that of hunger; it must be as

susceptible of restraint. Indeed, the relations of sex have already

been placed under a certain amount of restriction by both law and

custom, only these restrictions are not nearly of such severity or

universal application as those which govern the instinct of hunger,

showing that the human race, in their present stage of development,

have not felt that it was such a pressing question. Society has not

hitherto recognised such restraint as essential to its own existence

and welfare. This conviction, however, is now awakened, and when once

established, it will be found that the dominion of law is as powerful

in one direction as in the other. Every great question of society

is a necessary subject of legislation. The necessity of protecting

property and the ability to do so, even against the terrible power of

slow starvation, is shown by every civilized nation. This experience

conclusively proves that chastity also may be protected by legislation,

as soon as the growing common-sense of a community awakes to the fact

that it also is a property--the most valuable property that a great

nation can possess--and that licentiousness is a growing evil that

may be checked by legislation. The true principle to be held to, in

legislating for the evils that afflict society, cannot be too often

insisted on. In legislating for any evil, it is necessary to seek out

the deepest source of the evil, and check that source. Attention must

not be limited to the effects of the evil. This is eminently true of

all legislation which deals with the evils caused by licentiousness--a

branch of legislation which, more than any other, has a direct and

powerful bearing upon the welfare of the family.

The subject of licentiousness is justly attracting the attention of

legislators of the present day to an extent which has never been

witnessed before. This is a sign of dawning promise, for the worst

condition of a nation is that where gross evils remain uncared for.

This great evil has crept on uncared for, or referred to with hushed

breath, until it bids fair to ruin our most valued institutions.

Legislation has broken the spell, and will continue its work until

it has aroused the conscience of the nation. The execution of wise

measures can only be secured by the support of an enlightened,

conscientious community. No legislation can be efficient which does

not represent the best average sentiment of the country. In regard

to this great question, no wise legislation is possible for any evil

of licentiousness until the subject has been thoroughly considered

by those who are most keenly interested in it--viz., the fathers

and mothers of the nation. No specialists, of whatever class, can

suggest wise measures, as specialists, in a matter which so intimately

concerns the family. Only a large view of what is needed for the

purity and dignity of the family, for the good of its children, for its

influence in society, can secure wise laws. Anything which tends to

encourage the lowest passions of human nature, either by the acceptance

of base customs, by the legalization of vice, or by fostering in

any other way the animal tendencies of men, must produce hereditary

as well as social effects on daughters as well as sons. Customs and

institutions which injure the character of women, which weaken their

virtue and crush out the germs of higher life, must be the source

of deadliest evil to any nation. It behoves the legislators of the

present generation to be careful in their social and legal sanction of

vice amongst males, lest they be blindly undermining the whole social

fabric, amongst women as well as men, in a way which they would least

wish to do, if they knew what they were doing.

* * * * *

The first step towards the moral education of the youth of a nation is

a clear perception on the part of parents of the true aim of education,

with the individual action to which such perception leads. The second

step is combination--_i.e._, the determination to secure this end by

the strength of union. It is true that individual efforts are the

foundation on which any power must rest that wishes to lift society

to a higher level, and we find at present innumerable individuals

keenly alive to the evils in which we are involved, and earnest in

seeking a remedy. There are very many families where father and mother

work together with unwearied effort to ennoble home life, but these

individual efforts, these aspirations and patient endeavours, although

indispensable as a foundation, are isolated and scattered; they are

continually overpowered by the evil influences existing outside the

family. Organized effort is needed--resolute and united action--to

meet the organized dangers of the present age. The condensed review

in the preceding pages of the causes which produce the present low or

diseased condition of the humanizing principle of sex, indicates the

immense range of subjects which its consideration and guidance involve.

No isolated individual, no single family, can work out for itself a

solution of the present problem, or command the means for securing the

moral welfare of the most cherished child. Change in the conditions of

life may be wrought by united effort; it cannot be attained by isolated

effort. When we consider the innumerable objects for which strength is

gained by association, and that this rational principle is constantly

extending its operation in the present age, it is evident that any

strong leading principle capable of enlisting devotion and steady

enthusiasm affords sound basis for combination and organization. Such

a leading principle is found in the clear conviction of the nobility

of the spiritual principle of sex in the human being, the binding

obligation of one moral law for all, and the regenerating power of

this law upon the human race. It is a principle capable of enlisting

religious devotion and embodying itself in the most valuable practical

action. Methods of combination inspired by this principle are clearly

conceivable which would be susceptible of the widest application.

Indications of such combination are already visible, and these must

constantly extend themselves as this great idea of the present

age--_the true view of Sex_--grows into complete development.

All existing efforts which tend to destroy the causes of

licentiousness--such as temperance, increase of occupation and wages

for women, improvement of poor dwellings, facilities for rational

amusement, the abolition of enforced celibacy, and the regeneration

of the army--demand and should receive the special recognition and

aid of parents. These movements are all invaluable and cannot be too

actively supported, being founded on true principles of growth; but

something more is needed--viz., distinct open acknowledgment of the

fundamental principle here laid down, and organization growing out of

it. In this work the natural leader of a nation is the Church--_i.e._,

that great body of all religious teachers and persons who believe that

man cannot live by bread alone, but that the Divine instinct that urges

him onwards and upwards must be expressed in the forms of our daily

life. When the Church recognises that one of its difficult but glorious

duties is to teach men how to carry out religious principles in

practical life, it will perceive that the foundation of all righteous

life is reverence for the noble human principle of sex. It will no

longer shrink from enforcing this regenerating principle. The undue

proportion of thought and effort now given to forms and ceremonies,

to metaphysical disquisitions and subtle distinctions, will then give

place to earnest united efforts to enable men to lead righteous lives.

No Church performs its duty to the young that fails to raise this

fundamental subject of sex into its proper human level. It is bound to

rouse every young man and woman of its congregation to the perception

that respect for the principle of sex, with fidelity to purity, is a

fundamental condition of religious life.

The truths which have been set forth in the preceding pages may be

briefly summed up in the following propositions--viz:

Early chastity strengthens the physical nature, creates force of Will,

and concentrates the intellectual powers on the nobler ends of human

life.

Continence is indispensable to the physical welfare of a young man

until the age of twenty-one; it is advantageous until twenty-five; it

is possible without physical injury throughout life.

The passion of sex can only be safely and healthily gratified

by marriage; illegal relations produce physical danger, mental

degradation, and social misery.

The family is the indispensable foundation of a progressive nation,

and the permanent union of one man with one woman is essential to the

welfare of the family.

Marriage during matured early vigour is essential to the production of

a strong race.

Individual morality can only be secured by the prevalence of early

purity, and national morality by the cumulative effects of heredity.

In Moral Education the first step to secure is the slow development

of sex; the second, its legitimate satisfaction through honourable

companionship, followed by marriage.

There are special duties which devolve upon women as mother, sister,

ruler of a household, and member of society for securing the

conditions necessary for the attainment of early purity in sons and

daughters.

There are special duties laid upon men, not only as parents, but as

citizens, for the attainment of national morality.

The fact must be clearly perceived and accepted, that male purity is a

fundamental virtue in a State; that it secures the purity of women, on

which the moral qualities of fidelity, humanity, and trustworthiness

depend; and that it secures the strength and truth of men, on which

the intellectual vigour and wise government of a State depend.

Whether it be regarded in relation to the physical and mental status

of Man, or the position and welfare of Woman, there is no social evil

so great as the substitution of Fornication and Celibacy for Chastity

and Marriage.

These are fundamental truths. But in those grown old in watching the

spread of evil, despair often takes possession of the mind, and the

question arises, Can evil ever be overcome with good? Can we hope to

change this widespread perversion of human faculties? When we observe

the raging lust of invading armies, more cruel than the ferocity of

the most savage beasts; when we study the tumultuous passions of

early youth, the rush for excitement, for every kind of gratification

that the impulse of the moment demands, can we believe that there are

forces at our command strong enough to quell the tumult, to guide the

multitude, to sustain the weak, to change the fierce brutishness into

noble manhood and womanhood?

There is a force more powerful than tempest or whirlwind, more

irresistible than the fiercest brutal passion, a power which works in

nature unseen but ceaselessly, repairing all destruction, accomplishing

a mighty plan; a power which works in the human soul, enabling it to

learn truth, to understand principles, to love justice and humanity,

and to reach steadily onward to the attainment of the highest ideal.

It is the creative and regenerating force of Wisdom, gradually but

irresistibly penetrating the mind of Humanity. This mighty governing

Power, call it by what name we may--Religion, Truth, Spiritual

Christianity, Jehovah--uses human means, and works through the changing

phenomena of daily life. It is our part to make the forms of human life

exponents of this Divine force.

The principles here laid down are true. They rest upon the firm

foundation of physiological law, and are confirmed by facts of

universal experience. Let the younger generation of parents accept

them in their great significance, making them the guiding influence

in all social relations. Then will human life at once begin to shape

itself according to God’s Truth; the law of inheritance will strengthen

each generation into nobler tendencies; and our nation, renewing its

strength, will grow into a humble but glorious exponent of the Divine

Idea.

APPENDIX I. (PAGE 262)

_Christian Duty in regard to Vice_

Cruelty and Lust are the twin evils that now most seriously afflict

our race, and which women--the mothers of the race--are especially

called on to fight. Women must act. No one not partially blind can fail

to see that the onward movement of events is carrying women forward

into positions of active influence in social life that they have not

hitherto occupied. Whether we welcome or dread this change, it goes

on irresistibly, based upon industrial activity, and extending into

every other department of life. The command of wisdom is to accept this

advance, recognise its responsibilities, and bravely rise to meet them.

Women, by the endowment of Motherhood, are created with special powers.

This endowment, which is a mighty spiritual as well as a physical

force, indicates their distinctive line of active influence, and will

show why they are especially called on to combat cruelty and lust,

which kill motherhood.

In this special subject, women must initiate their own lines of

action, for they are called on by the constitution of Humanity to

lead in this moral warfare, not be led. Equal justice to all, with

protection for the most defenceless, is the only foundation on which

both custom and legislation can safely rest in any attempt to improve

the relations of the sexes or to remedy the direful evils which these

relations at present engender.

APPENDIX II. (PAGE 265)

Terrible instances of this may be seen in Trélat’s medical work, _La

Folie Lucide_, etc. Lallemand and other French surgeons report numerous

cases of fatal injury done even to nursing infants by the wicked

actions of unprincipled nurses. I have myself traced the ill-health of

children in wealthy families to the habits practised by confidential

nurses, apparently quiet, respectable women! Abundant medical testimony

confirms these observations.

It is not the plan of the present essay to enter into minute details

and suggestions relative to every step of family life which bears upon

our subject; such details are more suited to the private and familiar

conferences of those who are resolved to ennoble the life of sex. When

this high resolve has become a guiding principle, it will throw light

upon every practical arrangement from infancy onward. It will then be

seen that no details are insignificant to the watchful mother; that the

shape of the child’s nightdress, made in the form of loose drawers; the

manner of washing and of attending to its natural wants; the nightly

prayer; simple and respectful answers to the questions of awakening

curiosity--all endless applications will flow from a perception of the

necessity of securing the slow and healthy development of sex.

Dr. Acton has called attention to the necessity of securing local

cleanliness, and to the evil arising from worms and from the habit of

wetting the bed.

FOOTNOTES:

[16] Parkes’ _Manual of Practical Hygiene_, 4th edition, p. 493.

[17] _Ibid._, p. 493.

[18] W. B. Carpenter’s _Principles of Human Physiology_, 7th edition,

p. 631.

[19] W. B. Carpenter’s _Principles of Human Physiology_, 7th edition,

p. 812.

[20] The unhealthiness and indecency of harem life, with its effect

upon the boys and girls, its encouragement of abortion, and the unhappy

and degraded condition of the women, are sketched with the painful

truth of close observation in _The People of Turkey_, edited by S.

Lane Poole--a book worthy of careful consideration. See also Lane’s

_Egyptians_, etc.

[21] _Bulgaria and the Bulgarians._

[22] Abstract from the _Sun_. See _Thirtieth Annual Report of the

Prison Association of New York_.

[23] See Sadler on _Population_ for many curious facts tending to show

how strictly Nature guards this equality.

[24] See Michel Lévy’s _Traité d’Hygiène_, 5th edition, vol. i., p. 145.

[25] Hufeland’s _Art of Prolonging Life_, edited by Erasmus Wilson. 2nd

edition, Part II., p. 138.

[26] See W. B. Carpenter’s _Principles of Human Physiology_, 7th

edition, p. 909.

[27] _Ibid._, p. 909.

[28] One of the most powerful causes of the growth of pessimism in

Germany is the increasing licentiousness of a race created with a high

ideal of virtue and cherishing a love of home.

[29] The frequent opinion that a limited amount of fornication is

a very trivial matter, that the individual may become an excellent

father of a family and good citizen in spite of such indulgence, is

based on the grave error of regarding sexual relations as the act

of one instead of two individuals, and limited in their effects to

the moment of occurrence. The moral character of such indulgence is,

however, determined by its effects upon the after-life of two human

beings--viz., its effect on the citizen, whose judgment becomes injured

in relation to this great subject of national welfare, through early

experience, and on the partner in vice whose life is one of growing

degradation. These two inevitable facts remain through life.

[30] See Debates of Working Men’s Congress, Paris, October, 1876. Also

_La Femme Pauvre_, a work crowned by the French Academy some years ago.

Also the writings of Le Clerc, Guizot, etc.

[31] See Reports of Rescue Society, London.

[32] This question is now anxiously asked by intelligent mothers, who,

resolved to do what is right for their children, are yet bewildered

by the contradiction of authorities and the customs of society. It is

the necessity in my own medical practice of answering this question

truthfully, which is one of the reasons that has compelled me to write

these pages.

[33] G. M. Humphrey, M.D., F.R.S., in Holme’s _System of Surgery_, 3rd

edition, vol. iii., p. 550.

[34] See Acton’s _Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs_,

6th edition, p. 12 _et seq._

[35] Acton’s _Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs_, 6th

Ed., pp. 37, 38.

[36] See also a very interesting account of schools in Thackeray’s

_Irish Sketch-Book_.

[37] I can speak from personal observation of these upright

communities, where the health of the men was far better than that of

the women; the former leading an outdoor, the latter an indoor life.

[38] Numerous instances of wise maternal influence over sons have come

under my own observation, where in mature life they have thanked these

true friends, their mothers, for the wise counsels given at the right

time.

[39] See Appendix I., p. 306.

[40] In earnest conversation with a gentleman of wide connections,

resident in Vienna, he stated that he did not know a single young man

who led a virtuous life. So completely was the idea of sexual control

lost, that he said frankly he should consider any man a hypocrite who

pretended to be virtuous. A Protestant pastor in a small University

town in the South of France told me that the public sentiment of

both men and women in that town was so false that a man who had no

inclination to vice would be ashamed to acknowledge a virtuous life.

[41] See Appendix II., p. 308.

[42] See a valuable article in the _Westminster Review_, July, 1879,

‘An Unrecognised Element in our Educational Systems.’

[43] Sir James Paget, _Clinical Lectures and Essays_, second edition,

p. 293.

[44] There is a class of persons, the illogical, whose conscience

will not allow them to counsel vice, who state that it is a habit

that can be avoided as the use of opium can be avoided, but who in

the same breath declare prostitution to be a necessity, and that the

greater part of young men away from home will resort to it. Now, if

prostitution be a necessity, it must be because fornication is a

necessity. What is a necessity? It is something inevitable, because

it is rooted in the constitution; it is an unavoidable development

of human nature itself. If so, fornication is not a habit like

opium-eating, but the form in which human nature is shaped--God’s

work. In that case fornication would not be wrong; it should not be

condemned, and neither the man nor the woman who practises it should be

blamed. There is no avoiding this direct conclusion, and everyone who

asserts that prostitution is a necessity must be prepared to accept it.

This grave error and the confusion of thought and practice which arises

from it proceed from a wrong use of the word ‘Necessity.’ It is the

existence of the sexual passion which is a necessary part of nature,

not prostitution. This necessary passion may either be controlled or

it may be satisfied in two ways--by marriage, or by fornication. It

is only the passion which is a necessity, not the way in which it is

gratified. It is thus a positive falsehood to state that prostitution

is a necessity, and, considered in all its bearings, a most dangerous

falsehood.

[45] Whilst travelling in Italy I met a very intelligent Austrian

gentleman, who, as a citizen of the United States, had brought up his

family in New York. Conversing on the various customs of society, he

said to me: ‘I have always endeavoured to respect women, and to live

an upright, moral life, but I have never met with any appreciation

of this fact by the families of my acquaintance. On the contrary,

no mother that I have known has banished a man of position from her

society, no matter how notoriously immoral his life may be. I have

known respectable mothers, moving in what is called the best society,

allowing a man of wealth to continue visiting the family after gross

impropriety of behaviour to a daughter. My own little Rosa there (and

he pointed to a charming little creature of sixteen who was travelling

with the party) will not give the slightest discouragement to a clever

or amusing man, although I may warn her against the notorious character

of the man. I go to Paris, and observe the night assemblies after the

theatres close. I find brilliant salons filled with young girls as

lovely as my own daughter, often gentle in manner, elegant in dress,

refined, accomplished; I should not know from observation merely that

they were fallen women. “What does it all mean?” I ask myself again and

again. Surely women in society have much to do in this matter.’

[46] Sadler on _Population_, who states the average age of marriage

amongst the labouring population at twenty-three years.

[47] See Professor Monier Williams’ _Indian Travels_.

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD

Transcriber’s Notes

Errors in punctuation have been fixed.

Page 120: “sexual moralty” changed to “sexual morality”

Page 168: “deady sin” changed to “deadly sin”