The continent man, on the other hand, is ready at any time to enter the bridal chamber as pure as his virgin wife. His powers remain normal, and he is not degenerated by wrong methods of life and thought. The older he grows the more he appreciates that his virginity is a pearl of great price; he is a strong man, with his appetites under the control of his higher nature; his speech and behavior are not likely to be coarse and blasphemous, and his tastes are not toward filthiness in thought, desire or action. He is worthy to be a lover;
"O happy she whose lips he presses! O happy she whom he caresses!" He walks the earth with a nobler tread for his cleanness of physique and mind and heart; there is no uncertain paternity haunting him, and he has pushed no woman further down into the mire, but has rather stretched forth his gallant arm to save.
He is what the Latin word "vir" conveys to us, rather than a mere "homo" he is virile, fit to be a lover, husband, father and good citizen, and worthy to be a knight at King Arthur's Hound Table. The chasteness of his man¬ner of life never causes him or others either physical or mental disease, or any impairment of manly quality.
If peradventure any disease might be conceived of as being attributable to his chastity, it would be immeasurably less harmful to himself, to his wife and to his offspring than any of the diseases of the unchaste. But the loss of virile power and other harms that are predicted for him by the ignorant never come.
He has injured no other person, nor has he been foolish enough to corrupt his own body realizing that it is sacred beyond anything else of which he knows.
Little danger is there that his progeny will be criminals, liars, thieves, sensualists or weaklings. He is in accord with Nature, with human and moral law, and with love "the greatest thing in the world." He elevates the foulest society without being contaminated by it; there is no scent of loathsomeness about him; and every tailless fox inwardly envies him. His passions and powers are pure, full and strong, without unnaturally occupying his mind, and when he marries they will respond with perfect activities. He is apt to be athletic, healthy and vigorous, partly because he likes the kind of life which makes him so, and partly because that mode of living conduces to cleanly manliness. This is the only kind of man to be a man who has not "profaned the God given strength, and marred the lofty line" of his ancestry, nor preyed upon and blasted his own hopes of being the father of a fair lineage.
"He who in Pleasure's downy arms Ne'er lost his health, or youthful charms,
A hero lives; and justly can Exclaim, In me behold a man I".
"He prospers like the slender reed Whose top waves gently o'er the mead;
And moves, such blessings virtue follow, In health and beauty an Apollo".
"That power divine, which him inspires, His breast with noblest passions fires;
These heavenward soar with eagle flight, And spurn the cold, dark realms of night".
"So full of majesty, a god, Shall earth alone be his abode? With dignity he steps,
he stands, And nothing fears; for he commands".
"Like drops drawn from the crystal stream, His eyes with pearly brilliance beam: With blushing signs of
health o'erspread, His cheeks surpass the morning's red".
"The fairest of the female train For him shall bloom, nor bloom in vain;
O happy she whose lips he presses O happy she whom he caresses I".