Until our passions die and we again become neuters, we can never be perfectly free from temptations, but we can at least rationally subjugate them and resist them, so that they do not become ruling passions and we passion's slaves. Foresight and the observation of others who have gone along that dangerous path will lead us to see that indulgence in illegitimate pleasure brings nothing but pain, though the pursuing of that course may, on the surface, seem to be all pleasure. "If a young man wished to undergo the acutest sexual suffering, he could adopt no more certain method than to propose to be incontinent, with the avowed intention of becoming continent again when he had ' sown his wild oats.' The agony of breaking off a habit which so rapidly entwines itself with every fibre of the human frame is such that it would not be too much to say to any youth commencing a career of vice: ' Tou are going a road on which you will never turn back. However much you may wish it, the struggle will be too much for you. You had better etop now. It is your last chance.'
There is a terrible significance in the Wise Man's words: 'None that go to her return again, neither take they hold on the paths of life.'
In the treatment of disorders of the sexual organs the most important thing is to maintain a correct hygiene and give rest to the sexual functions. "The majority of sexual invalids (according to Furbringer, eighty-nine per cent) attribute their malady to sexual excesses, onanism, and gonorrhoea."
Sexual invalidism, sterility, and nervous disorders in the psycho-sexual domain are thus seen to be the concomitants not of continence, but of disease and excesses.
"In the course of my own professional experience, I can truthfully say that I have never met with a single instance in which disease of any kind was present as the result of a pure or continent life.
On the other hand, I have seen the most horrible results from the unlawful and unprofessional advice sometimes given by physicians to young men, suggesting unchastity as being essential for the relief of some physical weakness, though I have never met with a single case in which the slightest benefit had been derived from following such advice. My observations with reference to the character of those who give professional advice of this sort have long ago led me to the belief that, as a rule, only those who have themselves been impure to such an extent that they were bereft of their ability to judge properly of the influence of a pure and continent life are capable of giving such unwise and immoral advice."
The lords of the harem are said to be frequently impotent at twenty or thirty years of age on account of the unrestrained stimulation of their reproductive functions; and, in fact, it is the lascivious man who is the poor, whining sexual hypochondriac, while the continent man suffers no harm and retains his virility unimpaired indefinitely long. Society calls those women who have fallen into the sin of unchastity as sacrifices for the fornicators by the vilest terms, such as "abandoned women," "strumpets," "harlots," "whores," "prostitutes," "courtezans"; they are cut off from all association with their fellow-beings, and are deserted almost entirely,even by the churches.
The poor fallen woman, hounded from garret to cellar, and driven hither and thither, is treated by the police as a sort of wild animal, or criminal; she is segregated with others of her class; she is an outcast. Society, while not tolerating her, and while giving her the most opprobrious epithets, yet argues that some women must sacrifice themselves for the good of mankind! Why, then, if it is necessary that these women should exist, should we cast disgrace upon them? Eather should we revere and extol them for the sacrifice of themselves for the public good.
If they are necessary, then they have, for man's benefit, thrown away every prospect of the joys of earth or heaven, of home, of family, of motherhood and wifehood, of love, of respect, and of hope; having sold their peace of mind, and happiness and honor, they have, in addition, sold their own bodies.
If we maintain that their sacrifice is indispensable for the health of the community, then we should worship them for their self-immolation; no martyr ever equalled their devotedness, and each of them, in such an argument, is worthy of a monument! If such reasoning be absurd, as it assuredly is, how can any genuine man maintain that it is essential for the sake of his health that some woman should sacrifice for him her honor, her health, her respectability, and her hope of everything that is sweet?