University of Virginia Library

7. Unchastity.

THOU shalt not commit adultery." "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."

In these two scriptures we have a complete definition of unchastity. The seventh commandment, with the Saviour's commentary upon it, places clearly before us the fact that chastity requires purity of thought as well as of outward acts. Impure thoughts and unchaste acts are alike violations of the seventh commandment. As we shall see, also, unchastity of the mind is a violation of nature's law as well as of moral law, and is visited with physical punishment commensurate to the transgression.

Mental Unchastity. — It is vain for a man to suppose himself chaste who allows his imagination to run riot amid scenes of amorous associations. The man whose lips delight in tales of licentiousness, whose eyes feast upon obscene pictures, who is ever ready to pervert the meaning of a harmless word or act into uncleanness, who finds delight in reading vivid portrayals of acts of lewdness, — such a one is not a virtuous man. Though he may never have committed an overt act of unchastity, if he cannot pass a handsome female in the street without, in imagination, approaching the secrets of her person, he is but one grade above the open libertine, and is as truly unchaste as the veriest debauchee.

Man may not see these mental adulteries, he may not perceive these filthy imaginings; but One sees and notes them. They leave their hideous scars upon the soul. They soil and mar the mind; and as the record of each day of life is photographed upon the books of heaven, they each appear in bold relief, in all their innate hideousness.

O purity! how rare a virtue! How rare to find a face which shows no trace of sensuality! One turns with sadness from the thought that human "forms divine" have sunk so low. The standard of virtue is trailing in the dust. Men laugh at vice, and sneer at purity. The bawdy laugh, the ribald jest, the sensual glance, the obscene song, the filthy tale, salute the eyes and ears at every street corner, in the horse-car, on the railroad train, in the bar-room, the lecture hall, the workshop. In short, the works and signs of vice are omnipresent.

Foul thoughts, once allowed to enter the mind, stick like the leprosy. They corrode, contaminate, and infect like the pestilence; naught but Almighty power can deliver from the bondage of concupiscence a soul once infected by this foul blight, this mortal contagion.

Mental Uncleanness. — It is a wide-spread and deadly error, that only outward acts are harmful; that only physical transgression of the laws of chastity will produce disease. We have seen all the effects of physical abuse resulting from mental sin alone.

"I have traced serious affections and very great suffering to this cause. The cases may occur at any period of life. We meet with them frequently among

such as are usually called, or think themselves, continent young men. There are large classes of persons who seem to think that they may, without moral guilt, excite their own feelings or those of others by loose or libidinous conversation in society, provided such impure thoughts or acts are not followed by masturbation or fornication. I have almost daily to tell such persons that physically, and in a sanitary point of view, they are ruining their constitutions. There are young men who almost pass their lives in making carnal acquaintances in the street, but stop just short of seducing girls; there are others who haunt the lower class of places of public amusement for the purpose of sexual excitement, and live, in fact, a thoroughly immoral life in all respects except actually going home with prostitutes. When these men come to me, laboring under the various forms of impotence, they are surprised at my suggesting to them the possibility that the impairment of their powers is dependent upon these previous vicious habits."[8] [8] Acton.

"Those lascivious day-dreams and amorous reveries, in which young people, and especially the idle and the voluptuous and the sedentary and the nervous, are exceedingly apt to indulge, are often the source of general debility and effeminacy, disordered functions, premature disease, and even premature death, without the actual exercise of the genital organs! Indeed, this unchastity of thought, this adultery of the mind, is the beginning of immeasurable evil to the human family."[9] [9] Graham.

Certain phrenologists contend that the controlling center of the sexual passions is the cerebellum, or little brain, which is situated at the lower and back part of

the head. They apparently love to dwell upon the theme, and ride their hobby upon all possible occasions, often in the most disgusting manner, and always leaving the impression that they must be themselves suffering from perversion of the very function of which they speak.

There may be some doubt whether the function called amativeness is located in the cerebellum at all; at least, it is perfectly certain that amativeness is not the exclusive function of the cerebellum. Says Carpenter, the learned physiologist, "The seat of the sexual sensation is no longer supposed to be in the cerebellum generally, but probably in its central portion, or some part of the medulla oblongata."

The cerebellum is intimately connected with the principal vital organs; hence, if it is largely developed, the individual will possess a well-developed physical organism, and a good degree of constitutional vigor. He will have vigorous health, and probably strong sexual powers, not, however, as a special function, but for the same reason that he will have a good digestion.

To the majority of mankind, apparently, amativeness, or sexual love, means lust. The term has been lowered and debased until it might almost be considered practically synonymous with sensuality. The first step toward reform must be a recognition of a higher and purer relation than that which centers every thought upon the gratification of the animal in human nature. If one may judge from the facts which now and then come to the surface in society, it would appear that the opportunity for sensual gratification had come to be, in the world at large, the chief attraction between

the sexes. If to these observations we add the filthy disclosures constantly made in police courts and scandal suits, we have a powerful confirmation of the opinion. Even ministers, who ought to be "ensamples to the flock," are rather "blind leaders of the blind," and fall into the same ditch with the rest.

Filthy Dreamers. — This perversion of a natural instinct, and these sudden lapses from virtue which startle a small portion of the community, and afford a filthy kind of pleasure to the other part, are but the outgrowths of mental unchastity. "Filthy dreamers, before they are aware, become filthy in action. The thoughts mold the brain, as certainly as the brain molds the thoughts. Rapidly down the current of sensuality is swept the individual who yields his imagination to the contemplation of lascivious themes. Before he knows his danger, he finds himself deep in the mire of concupiscence. He may preserve a fair exterior; but the deception cannot cleanse the slime from his putrid soul. How many a church member carries under a garb of piety a soul filled with abominations, no human scrutiny can tell. How many pulpits are filled by "whited sepulchers," only the Judgment will disclose.

Unchaste Conversation. — "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment." "By thy words thou shalt be condemned." Matt. 12:34, 36, 37. In these three brief sentences, Christ presents the whole moral aspect of the subject of this paragraph. To any one who will ponder well his weighty words, no further remark is necessary. Let filthy talkers but consider for a

moment what a multitude of "idle," unclean words are waiting for account in the final day; and then let them consider what a load of condemnation must roll upon their guilty souls when strict justice is meted out to every one before the bar of Omnipotence, and in the face of all the world — of all the universe.

The almost universal habit among boys and young men of relating filthy stories, indulging in foul jokes, making indecent allusions, and subjecting to lewd criticism every passing female, is a most abominable sin. Such habits crush out pure thoughts; they annihilate respect for virtue; they make the mind a quagmire of obscenity; they lead to overt acts of lewdness.

But boys and youth are not alone in this. More often than otherwise, they gain from older ones the phraseology of vice. And if the sin is loathsome in such youthful transgressors, what detestable enormity must characterize it in the old!

Foul Gossip. — And women, too, are not without their share in this accursed thing, this ghost of vice which haunts the sewing-circle and the parlor as well as the club-room. They do not, of course, often descend to those depths of vulgarity to which the coarser sex will go, but couch in finer terms the same foul thoughts, and hide in loose insinuations more smut than words could well express. Some women, who think themselves rare paragons of virtue, can find no greater pleasure than in the discussion of the latest scandal, speculations about the chastity of Mrs. A or Mr. B, and gossip about the "fall" of this man's daughter or the amorous adventures of that woman's son.

Masculine purity loves to regard woman as chaste in

mind as well as in body, to surround her with conceptions of purity and impregnable virtue; but the conclusion is irresistible that those who can gloat over others' lapses from virtue, and find delight in such questionable entertainments as the most recent case of seduction, or the newest scandal, have need to purify their hearts and re-enforce their waning chastity. Nevertheless, a writer says, and perhaps truly, that "the women comprise about all the real virtue there is in the world." Certainly, if they were one-half as bad as the masculine portion of humanity, the world would be vastly worse than it is.

Causes of Unchastity. — Travelers among the North American Indians have been struck with the almost entire absence of that abandonment to vice which might be expected in a race uninfluenced by the moral restraints of Christianity. When first discovered in their native wilds, they were free from both the vices and the consequent diseases of civilization. This fact points unmistakably to the conclusion that there must be something in the refinements and perversions of civilized life which is unfavorable to chastity, notwithstanding all the restraints which religion and the conventionalisms of society impose. Can we find such influences? — Yes; they abound on every hand, and leave their blight in most unwelcome places, oft unsuspected, even, till the work of ruin is complete.

Libidinous Blood. — In no other direction are the effects of heredity to be more distinctly traced than in the transmission of sensual propensities. The children of libertines are almost certain to be rakes and prostitutes. History affords numerous examples in illustration of this

fact. The daughter of Augustus was as unchaste as her father, and her daughter was as immoral as herself. The sons of David showed evident traces of their father's failing. Witness the incest of Amnon, and the voluptuousness of Solomon, who had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Solomon's son was likewise a noted polygamist, of whom the record says, "He desired many wives." His son's son manifested the same propensity in taking as many wives as the debilitated state of his kingdom enabled him to support. But perhaps we may be allowed to trace the origin of this libidinous propensity still farther back. A glance at the genealogy of David will show that he was descended from Judah through Pharez, who was the result of an incestuous union between Judah and his daughter-in-law.

Is it unreasonable to suppose that the abnormal passion which led David to commit the most heinous sin of his life in his adultery with Bath-sheba, and subsequently procuring the death of her husband, was really an hereditary propensity which had come down to him through his ancestors, and which, under more favorable circumstances, was more fully developed in his sons? The trait may have been kept dormant by the active and simple habits of his early years, but asserted itself in full force under the fostering influence of royal idleness and luxury. In accordance with the known laws of heredity, such a tendency would be the legitimate result of such a combination of circumstances.

The influence of marital excesses, and especially sexual indulgence during pregnancy, in producing vicious tendencies in offspring, will be fully dwelt upon elsewhere in this work, and need not be considered here

further than simply to call attention to the subject. Physiology shows conclusively that thousands of parents whose sons have become libertines and their daughters courtesans, have themselves implanted in their characters the propensity which led to their unchastity.

Early Causes. — The frequent custom of allowing children of the opposite sex to sleep together, even until eight or ten years of age, or longer, is a dangerous one. We have known of instances in which little boys of seven or eight have been allowed to sleep with girls of fourteen or sixteen, and in some cases most shameful lessons were taught, and by persons who would not be suspected of such an impropriety.

In a case which was under the author's care some time ago, a young woman, upwards of twenty years of age, who had been regarded in her community as a model of propriety, and whose character was, in the eyes of her friends, beyond reproach, had ruined her life, and brought herself almost to the verge of insanity by sexual familiarity with a little boy less than one-third her own age, who had for years been allowed to sleep with her.

The sexes should be carefully separated from each other, at least as early as three or four years of age, under all circumstances which could afford opportunity for observing the physical differences of the sexes, or in any way serve to excite those passions which at this tender age should be wholly dormant.

Diet vs. Chastity. — From earliest infancy to impotent old age, under the perverting influence of civilization, there is a constant antagonism between diet and purity. Sometimes — rarely, we hope — the helpless infant imbibes the essence of libidinous desires with its mother's milk,

and thence receives upon its forming brain the stamp of vice. When old enough to take food in the ordinary way, the infant's tender organs of digestion are plied with highly seasoned viands, stimulating sauces, animal food, sweetmeats, and dainty tidbits in endless variety. Soon tea and coffee are added to the list. Salt, pepper, ginger, mustard, condiments of every sort, deteriorate his daily food. If, perchance, he does not die at once of indigestion, or with his weakened forces fall a speedy victim to the diseases incident to infancy, he has his digestive organs impaired for life at the very outset of his existence.

Exciting stimulants and condiments weaken and irritate his nerves, and derange the circulation. Thus, indirectly. they affect the sexual system, which suffers through sympathy with the other organs. But a more direct injury is done. Flesh, condiments, eggs tea, coffee, chocolate, and all stimulants have a powerful influence directly upon the reproductive organs. They increase the local supply of blood; and through nervous sympathy with the brain, the passions are aroused.

Overeating, eating between meals, hasty eating, eating indigestible articles of food, ices, late suppers, etc., react upon the sexual organs with the utmost certainty. Any disturbance of the digestive function deteriorates the quality of the blood. Poor blood, filled with crude, poorly digested food, is irritating to the nervous system, and especially to those extremely delicate nerves which govern the reproductive function. Irritation provokes congestion; congestion excites sexual desires; excited passions increase the local disturbance;

and thus each reacts upon the other, ever increasing the injury and the liability to future damage.

When children are raised upon such articles, or upon food with which they are thoroughly mingled, what wonder that they occasionally "turn out bad"! How many mothers, while teaching their children the principles of virtue in the nursery, unwittingly stimulate their passions at the dinner table until vice becomes almost a physical necessity!

Thus these exciting causes continue their insidious work through youth and more mature years. Right under the eyes of fathers and mothers they work the ruin of their children, exciting such storms of passion as are absolutely uncontrollable.

Nothing tends so powerfully to keep the passions in abeyance as a simple diet, free from condiments, especially when coupled with a generous amount of exercise.

Clerical Lapses. — Our most profound disgust is justly excited when we hear of laxity of morals in a clergyman. We naturally feel that one whose calling is to teach his fellow-men the way of truth and right and purity, should himself be free from taint of immorality. But when we consider how these ministers are fed, we cannot suppress a momentary disposition to excuse, in some degree, their fault. When the minister goes out to tea, he is served with the richest cake, the choicest jellies, the most pungent sauces, and the finest of fine-flour bread-stuffs. Little does the indulgent hostess dream that she is ministering to the inflammation of passions which may imperil the virtue of her daughter, or even her own. Salacity once aroused, even in a minister, allows no room for reason or for conscience. If

women wish to preserve the virtue of their ministers, let them feed them more in accordance with the laws of health. Ministers are not immaculate.

The remedy for the dangers to chastity arising from this source, is pointed out in the paragraphs on "Continence."

Tobacco and Vice. — Few are aware of the influence upon morals exerted by that filthy habit, tobacco-using. When acquired early, it excites the undeveloped organs; arouses the passions, and in a few years converts the once chaste and pure youth into a veritable volcano of lust, belching out from its inner fires of passion, torrents of obscenity and the sulphurous fumes of lasciviousness. If long continued, the final effect of tobacco is emasculation; but this is only the necessary consequence of previous super-excitation. The lecherous day-dreams in which many smokers indulge, are a species of fornication for which even a brute ought to blush, if such a crime were possible for a brute. The mental libertine does not confine himself to bagnios and women of the town. In the foulness of his imagination, he invades the sanctity of virtue wherever his erotic fancy leads him.

When a boy places the first cigar or quid of tobacco to his lips, he takes — if he has not previously done so — the first step in the road to infamy; and if he adds wine or beer, he takes a short cut to the degradation of his manhood by the loss of virtue.

We are aware that we have made a grave charge against tobacco, and we have not hesitated to state the naked truth; yet we do not think we have exaggerated, in the least, the pernicious influence of this foul drug. As much, or nearly as much, might be said against the use of liquor, on the same grounds.

Obscene Books. — Another potent enemy of virtue is the obscene literature which has flooded the land for many years. Circulated by secret agencies, these books have found their way into the most secluded districts. Nearly every large school contains one of these emissaries of evil men and their Satanic master. Some idea of the enormity and extent of this evil may be gained from the following quotations from a published letter of Mr. Anthony Comstock: who has been for some time employed by the Young Men's Christian Association in suppressing the traffic by arresting the publishers and destroying their goods: —

"I have succeeded in unearthing this hydra-headed monster in part, as you will see by the following statement, which, in many respects, might be truthfully increased in quantity. These I have seized and destroyed: —

"Obscene photographs, stereoscopic and other pictures, more than one hundred and eighty-two thousand; obscene books and pamphlets, more than five tons; obscene letter-press in sheets, more than two tons; sheets of impure songs, catalogues, handbills, etc., more than twenty-one thousand; obscene microscopic watch and knife charms, and finger-rings, more than five thousand; obscene negative plates for printing photographs and stereoscopic views, about six hundred and twenty-five; obscene engraved steel and copper plates, three hundred and fifty; obscene lithographic stones destroyed, twenty; obscene wood-cut engravings, more than five hundred; stereotype plates for printing obscene books, more than five tons; obscene transparent playing-cards, nearly six thousand; obscene and immoral rubber arti-

cles, over thirty thousand; lead molds for manufacturing rubber goods, twelve sets, or more than seven hundred pounds; newspapers seized, about four thousand six hundred; letters from all parts of the country ordering these goods, about fifteen thousand; names of dealers in account-books seized, about six thousand; lists of names in the hands of dealers, that are sold as merchandise to forward circulars or catalogues to, independent of letters and account-books seized, more than seven thousand.

"These abominations are disseminated by these men by first obtaining the names and addresses of scholars and students in our schools and colleges, and then forwarding circulars. They secure thousands of names in this way, either by sending for catalogues of schools, seminaries, and colleges, under a pretense of sending a child to school; or else by sending out a circular purporting to be getting up a directory of all the scholars and students in schools and colleges in the United States; or of taking the census of all the unmarried people, and offering to pay five cents per name for lists so sent. I need not say that the money is seldom or never sent, but I do say that these names, together with those that come in reply to advertisements, are sold to other parties; so that when a man desires to engage in this nefarious business, he has only to purchase a list of these names, and then your child, be it son or daughter, is liable to have thrust into its hands, all unknown to you, one of these devilish catalogues.

"Since the destruction of the stereotype plates of old books, secret circulars have been discovered of a notice to dealers that twelve new books are in course of preparation, and will soon be ready for delivery."

Says Hon. C. L. Merriam, as quoted by a recent writer: "We find that the dealers in obscene literature have organized circulating libraries, which are under the charge of the most vicious boys in the schools, boys chosen and paid by the venders, who circulate among the students, at ten cents a volume, any of the one hundred and forty-four obscene books heretofore published in New York City."

Largely through the influence of Mr. Comstock, laws have been enacted which promise to do much toward checking this extensive evil, or at least causing it to make itself less prominent. Our newspapers still abound with advertisements of various so-called medical works, "Marriage Guides," etc., which are fruits of the same "upas-tree" that Mr. Comstock has labored so faithfully to uproot.

Sentimental Literature. — It is a painful fact, however, that the total annihilation of every foul book which the law can reach will not effect the cure of this evil; for our modern literature is full of the same virus. It is necessarily presented in less grossly revolting forms, half concealed by beautiful imagery, or embellished by wit; but yet, there it is, and no law can reach it. The works of our standard authors in literature abound in lubricity. Popular novels have doubtless done more to arouse a prurient curiosity in the young, and to excite and foster passion and immorality, than even the obscene literature for the suppression of which such active measures have recently been taken. The more exquisitely painted the scenes of vice, the more dangerously enticing. Novel-reading has led thousands to lives of dissoluteness.

City and school libraries, circulating libraries, and even Sunday-school libraries, are full of books which, though they may contain good moral teaching, contain, as well, an element as incompatible with purity of morals as is light with midnight darkness. Writers for children and youth seem to think a tale of "courtship, love, and matrimony" entirely indispensable as a medium for conveying their moral instruction

"Religious Novels." — Some of these "religious novels" are actually more pernicious than the fictions of well-known novelists who make no pretense to having religious instruction a particular object in view. Sunday-school libraries are not often wholly composed of this class of works; but any one who takes the trouble to examine the books of such a library, will be able to select the most pernicious ones by the external appearance. The covers will be well worn, and the edges begrimmed with dirt from much handling. Children soon tire of the shallow sameness which characterizes the "moral" parts of most of these books, and skim lightly over them, selecting and devouring with eagerness those portions which relate the silly narrative of some love adventure. This kind of literature arouses in children premature fancies and queries, and fosters a sentimentalism which too often occasions most unhappy results. Through their influence, young girls are often led to begin a life of shame long before their parents are aware that a thought of evil has ever entered their minds.

The following words from the pen of a forcible writer[10] present this matter in none too strong a light: — [10] T, DeWitt Talmage.

"You may tear your coat or break a vase, and repair

them again; but the point where the rip or the fracture took place will always be evident. It takes less than an hour to do your heart a damage which no time can entirely repair. Look carefully over your child's library; see what book it is that he reads after he has gone to bed, with the gas turned, upon the pillow. Do not always take it for granted that a book is good because it is a Sunday-school book. As far as possible, know who wrote it, who illustrated it, who published it, who sold it.

A Modern Plague. — "It seems that in the literature of the day, the ten plagues of Egypt have returned, and the frogs and lice have hopped and skipped over our parlor tables.

"Parents are delighted to have their children read, but they should be sure as to what they read. You do not have to walk a day or two in an infested district to get the cholera or typhoid fever; and one wave of moral unhealth will fever and blast the soul forever. Perhaps, knowing not what you did, you read a bad book. Do you not remember it altogether? — Yes; and perhaps you will never get over it. However strong and exalted your character, never read a bad book. By the time you get through the first chapter, you will see the drift. If you find the marks of the hoofs of the devil in the picture, or in the style, or in the plot, away with it.

"But there is more danger, I think, from many of the family papers, published once a week, in those stories of vice and shame, full of infamous suggestions, going as far as they can without exposing themselves to the clutch of the law. I name none of them; but say that on some fashionable tables there lie `family newspapers' that are the very vomit of the pit.

"The way to ruin is cheap. It costs three dollars to go to Philadelphia; six dollars to Boston; thirty-three dollars to Savannah; but, by the purchase of a bad paper for ten cents, you may get a through ticket to hell, by express, with few stopping-places, and the final halting like the tumbling of the lightning train down the draw-bridge at Norwalk-sudden, terrific, deathful, never to rise."

Idleness. — This evil is usually combined with the preceding. To maintain purity, the mind must be occupied. If left without occupation, the vacuity is quickly filled with unchaste thoughts. Nothing can be worse for a child than to be reared in idleness. His morals will be certain to suffer. Incessant mental occupation is the only safeguard against unchastity. Those worthless fops who spend their lives in "killing time" by lounging about bar-rooms, loafing on street corners, or strutting up and down the boulevard, are anything but chaste. Those equally worthless young women who waste their lives on sofas or in easy-chairs, occupied only with some silly novel, or idling away life's precious hours in reverie, — such creatures are seldom the models of purity one would wish to think them. If born with a natural propensity toward sin, such a life would soon engender a diseased, impure imagination, if nothing worse.

Dress and Sensuality. — There are two ways in which fashionable dress leads to unchastity; viz., 1. By its extravagance; 2. By its abuse of the body.

How does extravagance lead to unchastity? — By creating the temptation to sin. It affects not those gorgeously attired ladies who ride in fine carriages, and

live in brown-stone fronts, who are surrounded with all the luxuries that wealth can purchase — fine apparel is no temptation to such. But to less favored, though not less worthy ones, these magnificent displays of millinery goods and fine trappings are most powerful temptations. The poor seamstress, who can earn by diligent toil hardly enough to pay her board bill, has no legitimate way by which to deck herself with the finery she admires. Plainly dressed as she must be if she remains honest and retains her virtue, she is scornfully ignored by her proud sisters. Everywhere she finds it a generally recognized fact that "dress makes the lady." On the street, no one steps aside to let her pass, no one stoops to regain for her the package that slips from her weary hands. Does she enter a crowded car? No one offers her a seat, though she is trembling with fatigue, while the showily dressed woman who follows her is accommodated at once. She marks the difference; she does not pause to count the cost, but barters away her self-respect to gain the respect, or deference, of strangers.

How Young Women Fall. — It has been authoritatively stated that there are, in our large cities, hundreds of young women who, being able to earn barely enough to buy food and fuel and pay the rent of a dismal attic, take the advice offered by their employers, "Get some gentleman friend to dress you for your company." Others spend all their small earnings to keep themselves "respectably" dressed, and share the board and lodgings of some young roué as heartless as incontinent. Persons unaccustomed to city life, and thousands of people in the very heart of our great metropolis, have no conception of the frightful prevalence of this kind of prostitu-

tion. Young women go to our large cities as pure as snow. They find no lucrative employment. Daily contact with vice obtunds their first abhorrence of it. Gradually it becomes familiar. A fancied life of ease presents allurements to a hard-worked sewing-girl. Fine clothes and comfortable lodgings increase the temptation. She yields, and barters her body for a home without the trouble of a marriage ceremony.

Wealthy women could do more to cure the "social evil" by adopting plain attire, than all the civil authorities by passing license laws or regulating ordinances. Have not Christian women a duty here? A few years ago, some Nashville ladies made a slight move in the right direction, as is indicated in the following paragraph; but we have not heard that their example has been followed: —

"The lady members of the First Baptist Church, of Nashville, Tenn., have agreed that they will dispense with all finery on Sunday, wearing no jewels but consistency, and hereafter appear at church in plain calico dresses."

A more radical reform would have been an extension of the salutary measure to all other days of the week as well as Sunday; though we see no reason for restricting the material of clothing to calico, which might, indeed, be rather insufficient for some seasons of the year.

Fashion and Vice. — Let us glance at another way in which dress lends its influence to vice, by obstructing the normal functions of the body. 1. Fashion requires a woman to compress her waist with bands or corsets. In consequence, the circulation of the blood toward the heart is obstructed. The venous blood is crowded back

into the delicate organs of generation. Congestion ensues, and with it, through reflex action, the unnatural excitement of the animal propensities. 2. The manner of wearing the clothing, suspending several heavy garments from the hips, increases the same difficulty by bringing too large a share of clothing where it is least needed, thus generating unnatural local heat. 3. The custom of clothing the feet and limbs so thinly that they are exposed to constant chilling, by still further unbalancing the circulation, adds another element to increase the local mischief.

All these causes combined, operating almost constantly, — with others that might be mentioned, — produce permanent local congestion, with ovarian and uterine derangements. The latter affections have long been recognized as the chief pathological condition in hysteria, and especially in that peculiar form of disease known as nymphomania, under the excitement of which a young woman, naturally chaste and modest, may be impelled to the commission of the most wanton acts. The pernicious influence of fashionable dress in occasioning this disorder cannot be doubted.

Reform in Dress Needed. — The remedy for these evils, the only way to escape them, is reformation. The dress must be so adjusted to the body that every organ will be allowed free movement. No corset, band, belt, or other means of constriction, should impede the circulation. Garments should be suspended from the shoulders by means of a waist, or by proper suspenders. The limbs should be as warmly clad as any other portion of the body. How best to secure these requirements of health may be learned from several excellent works on

dress reform, any of which can be readily obtained of the publishers of this work or their agents.

Fashionable Dissipation. — The influence of so important an agent for evil in this direction as fashionable dissipation, cannot be ignored. By fashionable dissipation we mean that class of excesses in the indulgence in which certain classes, usually the more wealthy or aristocratic, pride themselves. Among this class of persons a man who is known to be a common drunkard would not be recognized; such a person would be carefully shunned; yet a total abstainer would be avoided with almost equal care, and would be regarded as a fanatic or an extremist at least. With this class, wine-drinking is considered necessary as a matter of propriety. Along with wine are taken a great variety of highly seasoned foods, spices, and condiments in profusion, with rich meats and all sorts of delicacies, rich desserts, etc., which can hardly be considered much less harmful than stimulants of a more generally recognized character.

These indulgences excite that part of the system which generally needs restraint rather than stimulation. A participant, an ex-governor, recently described to us a grand political dinner given in honor of a noted American citizen, which began at 5 P. M. and continued until nearly midnight, continuous courses of food, wines, etc., being served for nearly six hours. Similar scenes have been enacted in a score of our large cities for the same ostensible purpose. Knowing that public men are addicted to such gormandizing on numerous occasions, we do not wonder that so many of them are men of loose morals.

The Influence of Luxury. — The tendency of luxury is toward demoralization. Rome never became dissipated and corrupt until her citizens became wealthy, and adopted luxurious modes of living. Nothing is more conducive to sound morals than full occupation of the mind with useful labor. Fashionable idleness is a foe to virtue. The young man or the young woman who wastes the precious hours of life in listless dreaming, or in that sort of senseless twaddle which forms the bulk of the conversation in some circles, is in very great danger of demoralization. Many of the usages and customs of fashionable society seem to open the door to vice, and to insidiously, and at first unconsciously, lead the young and inexperienced away from the paths of purity and virtue. There is good evidence that the amount of immorality among what are known as the higher classes, is every year increasing. Every now and then a scandal in high life comes to the surface; but the great mass of corruption is effectually hidden from the general public. Open profligacy is of course frowned upon in all respectable circles; and yet wealth and accomplishments will cover a multitude of sins.

This freedom allowed to the vile and vicious is one of the worst features of fashionable society. Such persons carry about them a moral atmosphere more deadly than the dreaded upas-tree.

Round Dances. — Whatever apologies may be offered for other forms of the dance as a means of exercise under certain restrictions, employed as a form of calisthenics, no such excuse can be framed in defense of "round dances," especially of the waltz. In addition to the associated dissipation, late hours, fashionable dressing, midnight feasting, exposures through excessive exertions,

improper dress, etc., it can be shown most clearly that dancing has a direct influence in stimulating the passions, and provoking unchaste desires, which too often lead to unchaste acts, and are in themselves violations of the requirements of strict morality, and productive of injury to both mind and body.

Said the renowned Petrarch, "The dance is the spur of lust, — a circle of which the devil himself is the center. Many women that use it have come dishonest home, most indifferent, none better."

A Woman's View of Dancing. — We quote the following from a letter written to a friend by a woman of great ability and strength of mind, of unblemished character and national reputation, and in response to his request for her opinion of the dance. The statements made in this remarkable letter are so clear and convincing that every parent ought to read it: —

"I will venture to lay bare a young girl's heart and mind by giving my own experience in the days when I waltzed.

"In those days I cared little for Polka or Varsovienne, and still less for the old-fashioned `Money Musk' or `Virginia Reel,' and wondered what people could find to admire in those `slow dances.' But in the soft floating of the waltz I found a strange pleasure, rather difficult to intelligibly describe. The mere anticipation fluttered my pulse, and when my partner approached to claim my promised hand for the dance, I felt my cheeks glow a little sometimes, and I could not look him in the eyes with the same frank gayety as heretofore.

"I am speaking openly and frankly, and when I say that I did not understand what I felt, or what were the

real and greatest pleasures I derived from this so-called dancing, I expect to be believed. But if my cheeks grew red with uncomprehended pleasure then, they grow pale with shame to-day when I think of it all. It was the physical emotions engendered by the contact of strong men that I was enamored of, — not of the dance, nor even of the men themselves.

"Girls talk to each other. I was still a school-girl, although mixing so much with the world. We talked together. We read romances that fed our romantic passions on seasoned food, and none but ourselves knew what subjects we discussed. Had our parents heard us, they would have considered us on the high road to ruin.

"Yet we had been taught that it was right to dance; our parents did it, our friends did it, and we were permitted. I will say also that all the girls with whom I associated, with the exception of one, had much the same experience in dancing.

"Married now, with home and children around me, I can at least thank God for the experience which will assuredly be the means of preventing my little daughters from indulging in any such dangerous pleasure.

"I doubt if my experience will be of much service, but it is the candid truth, from a woman who, in the cause of all the young girls who may be contaminated, desires to show just to what extent a young mind may be defiled by the injurious effects of round dances. I have not hesitated to lay bare what are a young girl's most secret thoughts, in the hope that people will stop and consider, at least, before handing their lilies of purity over to the arms of any one who may choose to blow the frosty breath of dishonor on their petals."

Much more might be added on this important subject, would the limits of this work allow; but this must suffice. We beg the reader to consider carefully and prayerfully the facts presented before deciding that dancing is so harmless as many persons suppose.

Physical Causes of Unchastity. — Some of the physical causes of impurity in women have been previously referred to, since it is through physical injuries that unhealthful clothing exerts its influence. Too little is generally known of the intimate connection between physical and mental conditions. Doubtless, many vices originate in physical imperfections. Indeed, when the full bearing of physical influences upon the mind is allowed, it is difficult to avoid pleading extenuating circumstances in the cases of the greater share of transgressors of both moral and civil laws. This principle is especially applicable to sexual relations.

In males, one of the most general physical causes of sexual excitement is constipation. The vesicula seminalis, in which the seminal fluid is stored, is situated, as will be remembered, at the base of the bladder. It thus has the bladder in front and the rectum behind. In constipation, the rectum becomes distended with feces — effete matter which should have been promptly evacuated, instead of being allowed to accumulate. This hardened mass presses upon the parts most intimately concerned in the sexual act, causing excessive local excitement. When this condition is chronic, as in habitual constipation, the unnatural excitement often leads to most serious results. One of these is the production of a horrible disease, satyriasis, the nature of which has been previously indicated.

Constipation in females has the same tendency, though the dangers are not quite so great. The irritation is sufficient, however, to lead to excitement of the passions.

Intestinal worms often produce the same result in children.

Local uncleanliness is another very frequent cause which is often overlooked. The natural local secretions quickly become a source of great irritation if not removed by daily washing. Certain anatomical peculiarities sometimes exist in the male, which greatly aggravate this difficulty, and for which circumcision, or an equivalent operation, is the remedy.

Irritation of the bladder, producing incontinence of urine, is another enemy to chastity. It should receive prompt attention and treatment. In children, this irritability is indicated by wetting of the bed at night. In cases of this kind, allow the child little drink in the latter portion of the day. See that the bladder is emptied just before he goes to bed. Wake him once or twice during the night, and have him urinate. Use all possible means to remove the cause of irritation by giving him plenty of out-of-door exercise and a very simple, though nutritious, diet. Avoid meat, eggs, and condiments.

Leucorrhœa is a cause as well as a result of unchastity in females. The discharge produces abnormal excitement, and attracts the attention of the individual to the parts, causing relief to be sought by rubbing, and thus still further excitement is provoked, and all evil practice begun.

Modern Modes of Life. — Aside from all the causes already enumerated, there are many other conditions

and circumstances, the result of modern habits of living, that tend directly toward the excitement of sensuality. Superheated rooms, sedentary employments, the development of the mental and nervous organizations at the expense of the muscular, the cramming system in schools, too long confinement of school-children in a sitting position, the allowance of too great freedom between the sexes in the young, the demoralizing influence of many varieties of public amusement, balls, church fairs, and other like influences too numerous to mention, all tend in the one direction, that of abnormal excitation and precocious development of the sexual functions.

It is not an exaggeration to say that for one conforming to modern modes of living, eating, sleeping, and drinking, absolute chastity is next to an absolute impossibility. This would certainly be true without a special interposition of Providence; but Providence never works miracles to obviate the results of voluntary sin.

Nervous Irritability. — One of the results of the fast life led by the majority of persons in civilized countries, is the production of what has been denominated the neurotic temperament, a condition in which the nervous system is unduly active and excitable. This condition is always accompanied by a deficiency of nerve tone. This means that the nerve centers which control the various functions of the body are more excitable and less under control of the will and other dominating and governing centers than in health. The consequence of this condition is a tendency to irregularity in the activity of the various vital functions, especially an exaggeration of the activity of those functions which are particularly called out by the emotions and propensities. This depraved condition

of the body constitutes a physical bias in the direction of vice and crime of all sorts. All the violent passions, such as irritability of temper and sensuality, are more readily excited to activity, and when in action, are more intense than in a healthy individual. This lowered nerve tone is also accompanied by a lowered mental tone, and a corresponding lowering of moral tone; so that while the propensities are unnaturally strong, the will by which they should be controlled is unusually weak. This state of things renders the individual an easy prey to vice, and particularly to that most overmastering of all the passions, sensuality. From this same morbid condition comes a growing tendency to the drink habit, and the ready acquirement of the use of tobacco and other narcotics, which in turn steadily increase the morbid condition referred to, and thus accelerate the tendency in the direction of sensuality and vice.

This tendency among civilized people is to be combated by having greater attention given to health culture; to the training of the muscles by thorough and systematic gymnastic exercise; to the connection of manual labor and manual training departments with our educational institutions; and to the encouragement of agricultural and other forms of muscular employment. The mind need not be trained less, but the body, more. Indeed, a better kind of mental discipline would prove one of the most effective means of checking the development of this morbid tendency. Self-control and self-discipline should be cultivated from the earliest period in the education of every child.

It is indisputable that sexual vices are far less prevalent among those barbarous tribes who live much in the

open air and obtain their sustenance by such arduous means as hunting and the gathering of the meager products of the forest and the untilled soil, than among civilized people; and it is also a fact that among civilized people, sensuality is far more prevalent with the nervous, excitable classes — those who are inferiorly developed physically, and whose occupations are not laborious — than among the agricultural population, and other classes whose occupation calls for vigorous exercise of the muscles. The most effective method of antagonizing vice among these classes, is to improve their condition physically, and to give muscular employments to antidote the tendency in their constitutions by which they become dangerous to the moral health of the community.