Of all the varieties of "wild oats," this sin of impurity far exceeds all others in its noxious and poisonous effects. For a man who is ignorant of the chances of acquiring disease, ignorant of all the physical and moral consequences, to put himself in a position to fall into such a trap is the height of unreason; even animals, as Darwin says", learn caution by seeing their brethren caught or poisoned."
One may sow other varieties of "wild oats", perhaps, with impunity; but before he makes himself liable to the dreadful consequences inseparably connected with licen¬tiousness he should at least know just what he is doing.
If a man through his licentiousness burden himself with the lasting consequences of disease, he has then done himself a grievous injury indeed; but if, by reason of his misguided passions, he get and beget disease, then he brings others down with him in his ruin, destroying not only their bodies, but also disgracing their reputations. The way to reform is much easier for men than it is for women, and there is no excuse if they do not mend their ways. Occasionally it may seem almost necessary for the outcast woman to continue in sin, because she earns her livelihood by it; but for the man, who spends his livelihood on it, there is never any excuse that does not aggravate the fault.
From a purely selfish standpoint we must now see that it is most inexpedient to exercise the sexual functions extra matrimonially; for the dangers which beset one who indulges in sexual irregularities are extraordinary, disease being practically assured to every man who exposes himself to any considerable extent.
Masturbation is so well understood to be destructive of every quality of moral and physical manhood and beauty that its devotee never thinks of acknowledging his defilement, rarely even to his physician. In that it is a crime against self, it is not so far reaching in its consequences to society unless the individual marries. It produces its own train of personal neuroses, diseases and degenerations, injuring the character, perverting the instincts, ruining the nervous system, and, by striking at the very foundations whence love comes, it unfits the victim for the high functions of a husband and father.
It is a " furious taskmaster," universally berated; practised only in secret, it affords a ready opportunity for frequent gratification. All the world despises a masturbator, as he does himself.
Fornication is a perversion, for it ignores the fundamental consequences of the procreative act namely, the welfare of offspring. Besides the great risk of initiating a new life, or of acquiring execrable preferences and strange plies or inclinations, it necessarily affects two persons, and thus becomes an act of vital importance to society. To the unenlightened there is a strong fascination about the strange woman who knows how by her dexterous encouragements and wily arts to inflame a man's passion by look, gesture and apparel; but the moth fluttering round the exposed electric arc light is hardly more in danger than he who ventures to cohabit with a woman who is loose with her favors.
Adultery, single or double, partakes of all the foul abominations of fornication, besides profaning the covenant of marriage, bringing a ruin of distress and disease into the households, and being a civil injury punishable by fine or imprisonment.
Gonorrhoea is a most serious disease with a notoriously uncertain course, many cases being followed by remote and lasting results which never can be cured, and it is the most frequent cause of blindness in children.
Syphilis is rampant and easily acquired, and is so uncertain in its course that it is impossible to predict in what order the various lesions will develop; and it is furthermore impossible at any given time to assure a patient that he is safe from its subsequent reappearance.