Does not Produce Impotence.--It has been declared that strict continence would result in impotency. The falsity of this argument is clearly shown by the following observations:--
"There exists no _greater error_ than this, nor one more opposed to physiological truth. In the first place, I may state that I have, after many years" experience, never seen a single instance of atrophy of the generative organs from this cause. I have, it is true, met the complaint, but in what cla.s.s of cases does it occur? It arises, in all instances, from the exactly opposite cause, abuse; the organs become worn out, and hence arises atrophy. Physiologically considered, it is not a fact that the power of secreting s.e.m.e.n is annihilated in well-formed adults leading a healthy life and yet remaining continent. No continent man need be deterred by this apocryphal fear of atrophy of the testes, from living a chaste life. It is a device of the unchaste--a lame excuse for their own incontinence, unfounded on any physiological law."[7]
[Footnote 7: Acton.]
The truth of this statement has been amply confirmed by experiments upon animals.
The complaint is made by those whose lives have been far otherwise than continent, that abstinence occasions suffering, from which indulgence gives relief. The same writer further says that when such a patient consults a medical man, "he should be told--and the result would soon prove the correctness of the advice--that attention to diet, gymnastic exercise, and self-control, will, most effectually relieve the symptoms."
Difficulty of Continence.--Some there are who urge that self-denial is difficult; that the natural promptings are imperious. From this they argue that it cannot but be right to gratify so strong a pa.s.sion. "The admitted fact that continence, even at the very beginning of manhood, is frequently productive of distress, is often a struggle hard to be borne--still harder to be completely victorious in--is not to be at all regarded as an argument that it is an _evil_."[8]
[Footnote 8: Ibid.]
But if rigid continence is maintained from the first, the struggle with the pa.s.sions will not be nearly so severe as after they have once been allowed to gain the ascendency. On this point, the following remarks are very just:--
"At the outset, the s.e.xual necessities are not so uncontrollable as is generally supposed, and they can be put down by the exercise of a little energetic will. There is, therefore, as it appears to us, as much injustice in accusing nature of disorders which are dependent upon the genital senses, badly directed, as there would be in attributing to it a sprain or a fracture accidentally produced."[9]
[Footnote 9: Mayer.]
Helps to Continence.--As already indicated, and as every individual with strong pa.s.sions knows, the warfare with pa.s.sion is a serious one if one determines to lead a continent life. He needs the help of every aid that he can gain. Some of these may be named as follows:--
_The Will_.--A firm determination must be formed to lead a life of purity; to quickly quench the first suggestions of impurity; to harbor no unchaste desire; to purge the mind of carnal thoughts; in short, to cleave fast to mental continence. Each triumph over vicious thoughts will strengthen virtue; each victory won will make the next the easier.
So strong a habit of continence may be formed that this alone will be a bulwark against vice.
_Diet_.--He who would keep in subjection his animal nature must carefully guard the portal to his stomach. The blood is made of what is eaten. Irritating food will produce irritating blood. Stimulating foods or drinks will surely produce a corresponding quality of blood.
Irritating, stimulating blood will irritate and stimulate the nervous system, and especially the delicate nerves of the reproductive system, as previously explained. Only the most simple and wholesome food should be eaten, and that only in such moderate quant.i.ties as are required to replenish the tissues. The custom of making the food pungent and stimulating with condiments is the great, almost the sole, cause of gluttony. It is one of the greatest hindrances to virtue. Indeed, it may with truth be said that the devices of modern cookery are most powerful allies of unchast.i.ty and licentiousness. This subject is particularly deserving of careful, candid, and studious attention, and only needs such investigation to demonstrate its soundness.
_Exercise_.--Next to diet as an aid to continence, perhaps of equal importance with it, is exercise, both physical and mental. It is a trite proverb, the truth of which every one acknowledges, that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do," and it is equally true that he always has an evil thought in readiness--speaking figuratively--to instill into an unoccupied mind. A person who desires to be pure and continent in body and mind must flee idleness as he would the devil himself; for the latter is always ready to improve upon the advantages afforded by an idle moment, an hour given to reverie.
We have the strongest testimony from the most eminent physicians in regard to the efficacy of exercise in overcoming abnormal s.e.xual desires. Mr. Acton relates the following statement made to him by a gentleman who has become distinguished in his profession:--
""You may be surprised, Mr. Acton," said he, "by the statement I am about to make to you, that before my marriage I lived a perfectly continent life. During my university career, my pa.s.sions were very strong, sometimes almost uncontrollable, but I have the satisfaction to think that I mastered them; it was, however, by great efforts. I obliged myself to take violent physical exertion; I was the best oar of my year, and when I felt particularly strong s.e.xual desire, I sallied out to take my exercise. I was victorious always, and I never committed fornication. You see in what vigorous health I am; it was exercise alone that saved me.""
Says Carpenter, on the same subject, in a textbook for medical students, ""Try the effect of close mental application to some of those enn.o.bling pursuits to which your profession introduces you, in combination with vigorous bodily exercise, before you a.s.sert that the appet.i.te is unrestrainable, and act upon that a.s.sertion.""
Walking, riding, rowing, and gymnastics are among the best modes of physical exercise for sedentary persons; but there is no better form of exercise than working in the garden. The cultivation of small fruits, flowers, and other occupations of like character, really excel all other modes of physical exercise for one who can engage in them with real pleasure. Even though distasteful at first, they may become very attractive and interesting if there is an honest, persevering desire to make them so. The advantages of exercises of this kind are evident.
1. They are useful as well as healthful. While they call into action a very large number of muscles by the varied movements required, the expenditure of vital force is remunerated by the actual value of the products of the labor; so that no force is wasted. 2. The tillage of the soil and the dressing of vines and plants bring one in constant contact with nature in a manner that is elevating and refining, or at least affords the most favorable opportunities for the cultivation of n.o.bility and purity of mind, and elevated principles.
Exercise carried to such excess as to produce exhaustion is always injurious. The same is true of mental labor as of physical exercise.
Plenty of sleep, and regular habits of retiring and rising, are important. Dozing is bad at any time; for it is a condition in which the will is nearly dormant, though consciousness still lingers, and the imagination is allowed to run wild, and often enough it will run where it ought not. Late study, or late hours spent in any manner, is a sure means of producing general nervous irritability and s.e.xual excitement through reflex influence.
_Bathing_.--A daily bath with cool or tepid water, followed by vigorous rubbing of the skin with a coa.r.s.e towel and then with the dry hand, is a most valuable aid. The hour of first rising is generally the most convenient time. How to take different kinds of baths is explained in other works devoted to the subject.[10] General and local cleanliness are indispensable to general and local health.
[Footnote 10: See "Uses of Water" and "The Household Manual."]
_Religion_.--After availing himself of all other aids to continence, if he wishes to maintain purity of mind as well as physical chast.i.ty--and one cannot exist long without the other--the individual must seek that most powerful and helpful of all aids, divine grace.
If, in the conflict with his animal nature, man had only to contend with the degrading influences of his own propensities, the battle would be a serious one, and it is doubtful whether human nature alone--at least in any but rare cases,--would be able to gain the victory; but, in addition to his own inherent tendencies to evil, man is a.s.sailed at every point by unseen agencies that seek to drag him down and spoil his soul with l.u.s.t. These fiendish influences are only felt, not seen, from which some argue that they do not exist. Such casuists must find enormous depths for human depravity. But who has not felt the cruel power of these unseen foes? Against them, there is but one safe, successful weapon, "the blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin."
The struggling soul, beset with evil thoughts, will find in prayer a salvation which all his force of will, and dieting, and exercising, will not, alone, insure him. Yet prayer alone will not avail. Faith and works must always be a.s.sociated. All that one can do to work out his own salvation, he must do; then he can safely trust in G.o.d to do the rest, even though the struggle seems almost a useless one; for when the soul has been long in bondage to concupiscence, the mind a hold of foul and l.u.s.tful thoughts, a panorama of unchaste imagery, these hateful phantoms will even intrude themselves upon the sanct.i.ty of prayer and make their victim mentally unchaste upon his knees. But Christ can pity even such; and even these degraded minds may yet be pure if with the psalmist they continue to cry, with a true purpose and unwavering trust, "Create in me a clean heart, O G.o.d, and renew a right spirit within me." "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."
At the first suggestion of an evil thought, send up a mental prayer to Him whose ear is always open. Prayer and impurity are as incompatible as oil and water. The pure thoughts that sincere prayer will bring, displace the evil promptings of excited pa.s.sion. But the desire for aid must be sincere. Prayer will be of no avail while the mind is half consenting to the evil thought. The evil must be loathed, spurned, detested.
It would seem almost unnecessary to suggest the impropriety of resorting to prayer alone when s.e.xual excitability has arisen from a culpable neglect to remove the physical conditions of local excitement by the means already mentioned. Such physical causes must be well looked after, or every attempt to reform will be fruitless. G.o.d requires of every individual to do for himself all that he is capable of doing; to employ every available means for alleviating his sufferings.
MARITAL EXCESSES.
It seems to be a generally prevalent opinion that the marriage ceremony removes all restraint from the exercise of the s.e.xual functions. Few seem to even suspect that the seventh commandment has any bearing upon s.e.xual conduct within the pale of matrimony. Yet if we may believe the confessions and statements of men and women, legalized prost.i.tution is a more common crime than illicit commerce of the s.e.xes. So common is the popular error upon this subject, and so strongly fortified by prejudice is it, that it is absolutely dangerous for a writer or speaker to express the truth, if he knows it and has a disposition to do so.
Any attempt to call attention to true principles is mocked at, decried, stigmatized, and, if possible, extinguished. The author is vilified, and his work is denounced, and relegated to the ragman. Extremist, fanatic, ascetic, are the mildest terms employed concerning him, and he escapes with rare good fortune if his chast.i.ty or virility is not a.s.sailed.
We are not going to run any such risks, and so shall not attempt to enunciate or maintain any theory. We shall content ourselves with plainly stating established physiological facts by quotations from standard medical authors, leaving each reader to draw conclusions and construct a practical formula for himself.
Object of the Reproductive Functions.--Man, in whatever condition we find him, is more or less depraved. This is true as well of the most cultivated and refined ladies and gentlemen of the great centers of civilization, as of the misshapen denizens of African jungles, or the scarcely human natives of Australia and Terra del Fuego. His appet.i.tes, his tastes, his habits, even his bodily functions are perverted. Of course, there are degrees of depravity, and varieties of perversion.
In some respects, savages approach more nearly to the natural state than civilized man, and in other particulars, the latter more nearly represents man"s natural condition; but in neither barbarism nor civilization do we find man in his primitive state.
In consequence of this universal departure from his original normal condition,--the causes of which we need not here trace, since they are immaterial in the consideration of this question,--when we wish to ascertain with certainty the functions of certain organs of the human body, we are obliged to compare them with the corresponding organs of lower animals, and study the functions of the latter. It is by this method of investigation that most of the important truths of physiology have been developed; and the plan is universally acknowledged to be a proper and logical one.
Then if we wish to ascertain, with certainty, the true function of the reproductive organs in man, we must pursue the course above indicated; in other words, study the function of reproduction in lower animals.
We say _lower animals_, because man is really an animal, a member of the great animal kingdom, though not a beast--at least he should not be a beast, though some animals in human form approach very closely to the line that separates humanity from brutes. We are brought, then, for a solution of this problem, to a consideration of the question, What is the object of the reproductive act in those members of the animal kingdom just below man in the scale of being? Let science tell us, for zoologists have made a careful study of this subject for centuries.
We quote the following paragraphs from one of the most distinguished and reliable of modern physiologists;[11] the facts which he states being confirmed by all other physiologists:--
"Every living being has a definite term of life, through which it pa.s.ses by the operation of an invariable law, and which, at some regularly appointed time, comes to an end.... But while individual organisms are thus constantly perishing and disappearing from the stage, the particular kind, or species, remains in existence.... This process, by which new organisms make their appearance, to take the place of those which are destroyed, is known as the process of _reproduction_ or _generation_.
"The ovaries, as well as the eggs which they contain, undergo, at particular seasons, a periodical development, or increase in growth....
At the approach of the generative season, in all the lower animals, a certain number of the eggs, which were previously in an imperfect and inactive condition, begin to increase in size and become somewhat altered in structure."
"In most fish and reptiles as well as in birds, this regular process of maturation and discharge of eggs takes place but once in a year.
In different species of quadrupeds it may take place annually, semi-annually, bi-monthly, or even monthly; but in every instance it recurs at regular intervals, and exhibits accordingly, in a marked degree, the periodic character which we have seen to belong to most of the other vital phenomena."
"In most of the lower orders of animals there is a periodical development of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es in the male, corresponding in time with that of the ovaries in the female. As the ovaries enlarge and the eggs ripen in the one s.e.x, so in the other the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es increase in size, as the season of reproduction approaches, and become turgid with spermatozoa. The accessory organs of generation, at the same time, share the unusual activity of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, and become increased in vascularity and ready to perform their part in the reproductive function."
"Each of the two s.e.xes is then at the same time under the influence of a corresponding excitement. The unusual development of the genital organs reacts upon the entire system, and produces a state of peculiar activity and excitability, known as the condition of "erethism.""
"It is a remarkable fact, in this connection, that the female of these animals will allow the approaches of the male only during and immediately after the oestral period; that is, just when the egg is recently discharged, and ready for impregnation. At other times, when s.e.xual intercourse would be necessarily fruitless, the instinct of the animal leads her to avoid it; and the concourse of the s.e.xes is accordingly made to correspond in time with the maturity of the egg and its apt.i.tude for fecundation."
"The egg, immediately upon its discharge from the ovary, is ready for impregnation. If s.e.xual intercourse happens to take place about that time, the egg and the spermatic fluid meet in some part of the female generative pa.s.sages, and fecundation is accomplished.... If, on the other hand, coitus do not take place, the egg pa.s.ses down to the uterus unimpregnated, loses its vitality after a short time, and is finally carried away with the uterine secretions."
"It is easily understood, therefore, why s.e.xual intercourse should be more liable to be followed by pregnancy when it occurs about the menstrual epoch than at other times.... Before its discharge, the egg is immature, and unprepared for impregnation; and after the menstrual period has pa.s.sed, it gradually loses its freshness and vitality."
[Footnote 11: Dalton.]
The law of periodicity, as it affects the s.e.xual activity of males of the human species, is indicated in the following remarks by the same author:--
"The same correspondence between the periods of s.e.xual excitement in the male and female, is visible in many of the animals [higher mammals], as well as in fish and reptiles. This is the case in most species which produce young but once a year, and at a fixed period, as the deer and the wild hog. In other species, on the contrary, such as the dog, the rabbit, the guinea-pig, etc., where several broods of young are produced during the year, or where, as in the human subject, the generative epochs of the female recur at short intervals, so that the particular period of impregnation is comparatively indefinite, the generative apparatus of the male is almost always in a state of full development; and is excited to action at particular periods, apparently by some influence derived from the condition of the female."