1. CONVERSATION BEFORE CHILDREN.--The conduct and conversation of
adults before children and youth, how often have I blushed with shame,
and kindled with indignation at the conversation of parents, and
especially of mothers, to their children: "John, go and kiss Harriet,
for she is your sweet-heart." Well may shame make him hesitate and
hang his head. "Why, John, I did not think you so great a coward.
Afraid of the girls, are you? That will never do. Come, go along, and
hug and kiss her. There, that's a man. I guess you will love the girls
yet." Continually is he teased about the girls and being in love, till
he really selects a sweet-heart.
2. THE LOSS OF MAIDEN PURITY AND NATURAL DELICACY.--I will not lift
the veil, nor expose the conduct of children among themselves. And
all this because adults have filled their heads with those impurities
which surfeit their own. What could more effectually wear off that
natural delicacy, that maiden purity and bashfulness, which form the
main barriers against the influx of vitiated Amativeness? How often do
those whose modesty has been worn smooth, even take pleasure in thus
saying and doing things to raise the blush on the cheek of youth and
innocence, merely to witness the effect of this improper illusion
upon them; little realizing that they are thereby breaking down the
barriers of their virtue, and prematurely kindling the fires of animal
passion!
3. BALLS. PARTIES AND AMUSEMENTS.--The entire machinery of balls
and parties, of dances and other amusements of young people, tend to
excite and inflame this passion. Thinking it a fine thing to get in
love, they court and form attachments long before either their mental
or physical powers are matured. Of course, these young loves, these
green-house exotics, must be broken off, and their miserable subjects
left burning up with the fierce fires of a flaming passion, which, if
left alone, would have slumbered on for years, till they were prepared
for its proper management and exercise.
4. SOWING THE SEEDS FOR FUTURE RUIN.--Nor is it merely the
conversation of adults that does all this mischief; their manners also
increase it. Young men take the hands of girls from six to thirteen
years old, kiss them, press them, and play with them so as, in a great
variety of ways, to excite their innocent passions, combined, I grant,
with friendship and refinement--for all this is genteely done. They
intend no harm, and parents dream of none: and yet their embryo love
is awakened, to be again still more easily excited. Maiden ladies, and
even married women, often express similar feelings towards lads, not
perhaps positively improper in themselves, yet injurious in their
ultimate effects.
5. READING NOVELS.--How often have I seen girls not twelve years old,
as hungry for a story or novel as they should be for their dinners! A
sickly sentimentalism is thus formed, and their minds are sullied with
impure desires. Every fashionable young lady must of course read every
new novel, though nearly all of them contain exceptionable allusions,
perhaps delicately covered over with a thin gauze of fashionable
refinement; yet, on that very account, the more objectionable. If
this work contained one improper allusion to their ten, many of those
fastidious ladies who now eagerly devour the vulgarities of Dumas, and
the double-entendres of Bulwer, and even converse with gentlemen about
their contents, would discountenance or condemn it as improper. _Shame
on novel-reading women_; for they cannot have pure minds or unsullied
feelings, but Cupid and the beaux, and waking of dreams of love, are
fast consuming their health and virtue.
6. THEATER-GOING.--Theaters and theatrical dancing, also inflame
the passions, and are "the wide gate" of "the broad road" of moral
impurity. Fashionable music is another, especially the verses set to
it, being mostly love-sick ditties, or sentimental odes, breathing
this tender passion in its most melting and bewitching strains.
Improper prints often do immense injury in this respect, as do also
balls, parties, annuals, newspaper articles, exceptional works, etc.
7. THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.--Stop for one moment and think
for yourself and you will be convinced that the sentiment herein
announced is for your good and the benefit of all mankind.
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