ADDITIONAL REMARKS.
That most practical of philosophers, Franklin, interprets chastity to
mean, _the regulated and strictly temperate satisfaction, without injury
to others, of those desires which are natural to all healthy adult
beings_. In this sense, chastity is the first of virtues, and one most
rarely practiced, either by young men or by married persons, even when
the latter most scrupulously conform to the letter of the law.[29]
The promotion of such chastity is the chief object of the present work.
It is all-important for the welfare of our race, that the reproductive
instinct should never be selfishly indulged; never gratified at the
expense of the well-being of our companions. A man who, in this matter,
will not consult, with scrupulous deference, the slightest wishes of the
other sex; a man who will ever put his desires in competition with
theirs, and who will prize more highly the pleasure he receives than
that he may be capable of bestowing—such a man appears to me, in the
essentials of character, a brute. The brutes commonly seek the
satisfaction of their propensities with straight-forward selfishness,
and never calculate whether their companions are gratified or teased by
their importunities. Man cannot assimilate his nature more closely to
theirs, than by imitating them in this.
Again. There is no instinct in regard to which strict temperance is more
essential. All our animal desires have hitherto occupied an undue share
of human thoughts; but none more generally than this. The imaginations
of the young and the passions of the adult are inflamed by mystery or
excited by restraint, and a full half of all the thoughts and intrigues
of the world has a direct reference to this single instinct. Even those
who, like the Shakers, “crucify the flesh,” are not the less occupied by
it in their secret thoughts; as the Shaker writings themselves may
afford proof. Neither human institutions nor human prejudices can
destroy the instinct. Strange it is, that men should not be content
rationally to control, and wisely to regulate it.
It is a question of passing importance, “How may it best be regulated?”
Not by a Shaker vow of monkish chastity. Assuredly not by the world’s
favourite regulator, ignorance. No. Do we wish to bring this instinct
under easy government, and to assign it only its due rank among human
sentiments? Then let us cultivate the intellect, let us exercise the
body, let us usefully occupy the time, of every human being. What is it
gives to passion its sway, and to desires their empire, now? It is
vacancy of mind; it is listlessness of body; it is idleness. A
cultivated race are never sensual; a hardy race are seldom love-sick; an
industrious race have no time to be sentimental. Develop the moral
sentiments, and they will govern the physical instincts. Occupy the mind
and body usefully, intellectually; and the propensities will obtain that
care and time only which they merit. Upon any other principle we may
doctor poor human nature for ever, and shall only prove ourselves
empirics in the end. Mortifications, vestal vows, mysteries, bolts and
bars, prudish prejudices—these are all quack-medicines; and are only
calculated to prostrate the strength and spirits, or to heighten the
fever, of the patient. If we will dislodge error and passion from the
mind, we must replace them by something better. They say that a vacuum
cannot exist in nature. Least of all can it exist in the human mind.
Empty it of one folly, cure it of one vice, and another flows in to fill
the vacancy, unless it find it already occupied by intellectual exercise
and common sense.
Husbands and fathers! study Franklin’s definition of chastity. Your
fears, your jealousies, have hitherto been on the stretch to watch and
guard: reflect whether it be not pleasanter and better, to enlighten and
trust.
Honest ascetics! you have striven to mortify the flesh; ask yourselves
whether it be not wiser to control it. You have sought to crucify the
body; consider whether it be not more effectual to cultivate the mind.
Have you succeeded in spiritualizing your secret thoughts? If not,
enquire whether all human propensities, duly governed, be not a benefit
and a blessing to the nature in which they are inherent.
Human beings, of whatever sex or class! examine dispassionately and
narrowly the influence which the control here recommended will produce
throughout society. Reflect whether it will not lighten the burdens of
one sex, while it affords scope for the exercise of the best feelings of
the other. Consider whether its tendency be not benignant and elevating;
conducive to the exercise of practical virtue, and to the permanent
welfare of the human race.
The following remarks are addressed to the reasonable and considerate
among mechanics, the most numerous and most useful class of society.
It is a great truth, often told, and never denied, that when there are
too many working people in any trade or manufacture, they are worse paid
than they ought to be paid, and are compelled to work more hours than
they ought to work.
When the number of working people in any trade or manufacture, has for
some years been too great, wages are reduced very low, and the working
people become little better than slaves.
When wages have been thus reduced to a very small sum, working people
can no longer maintain their children as all good and respectable people
wish to maintain their children, but are compelled to neglect them;—to
send them to different employments;—to mills and manufactories, at a
very early age.
The misery of these poor children cannot be described, and need not be
described, to you who witness them and deplore them every day of your
lives.
Many indeed among you are compelled for a bare subsistence to labor
incessantly, from the moment you rise in the morning, to the moment you
lie down at night, without even the hope of ever being better off.
The sickness of yourselves and your children, the privation and pain and
premature death of those you love, but cannot cherish as you wish, need
only be alluded to. You know all these evils too well.
And, what, you will ask, is the remedy?
How are we to avoid these miseries?
The answer is short and plain; the means are easy. You have but to use
the_ Electro-Galvania_ as directed and previously explained; it will
prevent conception, and thus, without diminishing the pleasures of
married life, or doing the least injury to the health of the most
delicate woman, both the woman and her husband will be saved from all
the miseries which having too many children produces.
By limiting the number of children, the wages both of children and of
grown up persons will rise; the hours of working will be no more than
they ought to be; you will have some time for recreation, some means of
enjoying yourselves rationally, some means as well as some time for your
own and your children’s moral and religious instruction.
At present, every respectable mother trembles for the fate of her
daughters as they grow up. Debauchery is always feared. This fear makes
many good mothers unhappy. The evil when it comes make them miserable.
And why is there so much debauchery? Why such sad consequences?
Why? But because many young men, who fear the consequences which a large
family produces, turn to debauchery and destroy their own happiness as
well as the happiness of the unfortunate girls with whom they connect
themselves.
Other young men, whose moral and religious feelings deter then from this
vicious course, marry early and produce large families, which they are
utterly unable to maintain. These are the causes of the wretchedness
which afflicts you.
But when it has become the custom here as elsewhere, to limit the number
of children, so that none need have more than they wish to have, no man
will fear to take a wife, all will be married while young;—debauchery
will diminish:—while good morals, and religious duties will be promoted.