Part 12 (2/2)
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 peris.h.i.+ng 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.”
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