After the advent of puberty a neutral or indifferent attitude is impossible.
One intelligent, wellinformed, vigorous and nobleminded man is of course worth a thousand mediocre men who have distorted tastes and illdeveloped physiques; and none can hope by his influence to elevate or improve the tribe or community in which he lives unless he is in some degree superior to the average more or less irresponsible and flippant members. It is in this way that racial improvement and human progress come about,by the advancement from the ranks of certain more responsible individuals, who, little by little, set the standards which are ultimately accepted.
Ignorance is a great evil and the best friend of Vice, while knowledge is the very foundation upon which the stability of the state most securely rests.
It is hardly necessary to say that improper sexual conduct is rife among us, and that it is polluting the sanctity of our homes to a degree only superficially appreciated. The pure, healthy glow of Sexuality, which is the greatest boon to the individual and to the race, becomes a curse when debased by Sensuality. These two words have become confused in the language of men of the world: so much so, that what we grant to be preeminently necessary for the assurance of a virile racenamely, sexual power has been prostituted by sensuality.
Voluptuousness, of course, has as its indispensable condition the degradation of a large number of women, and it has come to be a turbulent force which is actively consuming a large proportion of the community of every district, annihilating reputations with disgrace, consuming bodies with disease, polluting the sacredness of the family and the home, caricaturing the loftiness of love, and defiling the sacredness of marriage.
There aro few of either sex in this age who do not know that vice and immorality and harlotry exist to a shocking degree; and reticence upon these matters cannot improve our ethics, for sin simply luxuriates in secrecy and ignorance.
It shaU be the purpose of this book to supply the reader with all the scientifically accurate teachings which relate to or bear upon a life of immorality, and he shall be left to weigh the results and the conclusions according to his own judgment. The author's aim is not to preach, but to teach, and to present the truth in its absolute form without distortion or bias.
Every mature man knows fairly well what the allurements to immorality are, and that every welldeveloped youth must sooner or later pass through the ordeal of temptation; but comparatively few are grounded in the arguments which conclusively show how necessary it is to preserve the sexual glow in its pure and undefiled vigor.
What sin is more universal than impurity? It is as ancient as history itself, and it has played the most important part in the decline and fall of once noble and powerful nations. The sexual appetite remains with a man and gives a coloring to his life from the time of his puberty all through his active career, sometimes persisting with considerable ardor even to extreme old age.
Simple warning positively will not save a boy when he has left his neuter characteristics behind him and has been thrown out into the world. He must be taught those things which be is sure to need when he grows up; for experience teaches that if a man is to remain pure a battleroyal is in store for him, and that he may be overthrown in the struggle unless he is a "hoplite," or heavyarmed soldier, equipped with helmet, cuirass, greaves and shield, bearing a sword and spear, and sheathed in the panoply of knowledge.
Thoughtless persons are continually saying that to speak out plainly on these subjects merely fans the erotic fancy into a flame, and that it is a mistake to suggest anything of a sexual nature. Nothing could be more pernicious than this error, for the imperiousness of the sexual appetite will unfailingly assert itself in thought or action throughout manhood's days, and an ignorant person's influence for good will be nil, for he knows neither the truth of that which he speaks, nor the just measure of the results of his action.