1. THE NOBLEST FUNCTIONS OF MANHOOD.--The noblest functions of manhood
are brought into action in the office of the parent. It is here
that man assumes the prerogative of a God and becomes a creator.
How essential that every function of his physical system should be
perfect, and every faculty of his mind free from that which would
degrade; yet how many drag their purity through the filth of
masturbation, revel in the orgies of the debauchee, and worship at
the shrine of the prostitute, until, like a tree blighted by the livid
lightning, they stand with all their outward form of men, but without
life.
2. THRESHOLD OF HONOR.--Think of a man like that; in whom the passions
and vices have burned themselves out, putting on the airs of a saint
and claiming to have reformed. Aye, reformed, when there is no
longer sweetness in the indulgence of lust. Think of such loathsome
bestiality, dragging its slimy body across the threshold of honor and
nobility and asking a pure woman, with the love-light of heaven in
her eyes, to pass her days with him; to accept him as her lord; to
be satisfied with the burnt-out, shriveled forces of manhood left;
to sacrifice her purity that he may be redeemed, and to respect in a
husband what she would despise in the brute.
3. STOP.--If you are, then, on the highway to this state of
degradation, stop. If already you have sounded the depths of lost
manhood, then turn, and from the fountain of life regain your power,
before you perpetrate the terrible crime of marriage, thus wrecking
a woman's life and perhaps bringing into the world children who will
live only to suffer and curse the day on which they were born and the
father who begat them.
4. SEXUAL IMPOTENCY.--Sexual impotency means sexual starvation, and
drives many wives to ruin, while a similar lack among wives drives
husbands to libertinism. Nothing so enhances the happiness of married
couples as this full, life-abounding, sexual vigor in the husband,
thoroughly reciprocated by the wife, yet completely controlled by
both.
5. TWO CLASSES OF SUFFERERS.--There are two classes of sufferers.
First, those who have only practiced self-abuse and are suffering from
emissions. Second, those who by overindulgence in marital relations,
or by dissipation with women, have ruined their forces.
6. THE REMEDY.--For self-abuse: When the young man has practiced
self-abuse for some time, he finds, upon quitting the habit, that he
has nightly emissions. He becomes alarmed, reads every sensational
advertisement in the papers, and at once comes to the conclusion that
he must take something. _Drugs are not necessary._
7. STOP THE CAUSE.--The one thing needful, above all others, is to
stop the cause. I have found that young men are invariably mistaken
as to what is the cause. When asked as to the first cause of their
trouble, they invariably say it was self-abuse, etc., but it is not.
_It is the thought._ This precedes the handling, and, like every other
cause, must be removed in order to have right results.
8. STOP THE THOUGHT.--But remember, _stop the thought_! You must not
look after every woman with lustful thoughts, nor go courting girls
who will allow you to hug, caress and kiss them, thus rousing your
passions almost to a climax. Do not keep the company of those whose
only conversation is of a lewd and depraved character, but keep the
company of those ladies who awaken your higher sentiments and nobler
impulses, who appeal to the intellect and rouse your aspiration, in
whose presence you would no more feel your passions aroused than in
the presence of your own mother.
9. YOU WILL GET WELL.--Remember you will get well. Don't fear. Fear
destroys strength and therefore increases the trouble. Many get
downhearted, discouraged, despairing--the very worst thing that can
happen, doing as much harm, and in many cases more, than their former
dissipation. Brooding kills; hope enlivens. Then sing with joy that
the savior of knowledge has vanquished the death-dealing ignorance of
the past; that the glorious strength of manhood has awakened and cast
from you forever the grinning skeleton of vice. Be your better self,
proud that your thoughts in the day-time are as pure as you could wish
your dreams to be at night.
10. HELPS.--Do not use tobacco or liquor. They inflame the passions
and irritate the nervous system; they only gratify base appetites
and never rouse the higher feelings. Highly spiced food should be
eschewed, not chewed. Meat should be eaten sparingly, and never at the
last meal.
11. DON'T EAT TOO MUCH.--If not engaged in hard physical labor, try
eating two meals a day. Never neglect the calls of nature, and if
possible have a passage from the bowels every night before retiring.
When this is not done the feces often drop into the rectum during
sleep, producing heat which extends to the sexual organs, causing the
lascivious dreams and emission. This will be noticed especially in
the morning, when the feces usually distend the rectum and the person
nearly always awakes with sexual passions aroused. If necessary, use
injections into the rectum of from one to two quarts of water, blood
heat, two or three times a week. Be sure to keep clean and see to it
that no matter collects under the foreskin. Wash off the organ every
night and take a quick, cold hand-bath every morning. Have something
to do. Never be idle. Idleness always worships at the shrine of
passion.
12. THE WORST TIME OF ALL.--Many are ruined by allowing their thoughts
to run riot in the morning. Owing to the passions being roused as
stated above, the young man lies half awake and half dozing, rousing
his passions and reveling in lascivious thought for hours perhaps,
thus completely sapping the fountains of purity, establishing habits
of vice that will bind him with iron bands, and doing his physical
system more injury than if he had practiced self-abuse, and had the
emission in a few minutes. Jump out of bed at once on waking, and
never allow the thought to master you.
13. A HAND BATH.--A hand bath in cold water every morning will
diminish those rampant sexual cravings, that crazy, burning, lustful
desire so sensualizing to men by millions; lessen prostitution by
toning down that passion which alone patronizes it, and relieve wives
by the millions of those excessive conjugal demands which ruin their
sexual health; besides souring their tempers, and then demanding
millions of money for resultant doctor bills.
14. WILL GET WELL.--Feel no more concern about yourself. Say to
yourself, "I shall and will get well under this treatment," as you
certainly will. Pluck is half the battle. Mind acts and reads directly
on the sexual organs. Determining to get well gets you well; whilst
all fear that you will become worse makes you worse. All worrying over
your case as if it were hopeless, all moody and despondent feelings,
tear the life right out of these organs, whilst hopefulness puts new
life into them.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: INNOCENT CHILDHOOD.]
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