sent happiness, as
well as the happiness of futurity. Is this alone an exception to the
general rule?

But I need not make my appeal to this kind of authority. You rely on
human testimony. You believe a thousand things which yourselves never
saw or heard. _Why_ do you believe them, _except_ upon testimony--I
mean given either verbally, or, what is the same thing, in books?

Now if the accumulated testimony of medical writers from the days of
Galen, and Celsus, and Hippocrates, to the present hour, could have any
weight with you, it would settle the point at once. I have collected,
briefly, the results of medical testimony on this subject, in the next
chapter; but if you will take my statements for the present, I will
assure you that I _have before me_ documents enough to fill half a
volume like this, from those who have studied deeply these subjects,
whose united language is, that the practice in question, indulged in
_any degree_, is destructive to body and mind; and that although, in
vigorous young men, no striking evil may for some time appear, yet the
punishment can no more be _evaded_, except by early death, than the
motion of the earth can be hindered. And all this, too, without taking
into consideration the terrors of a judgment to come.

But why, then, some may ask, are animal propensities given us, if they
are not to be indulged? The appropriate reply is, they _are_ to be
indulged; but it is only in accordance with the laws of God; never
otherwise. And the wisdom of these laws, did they not rest on other and
better proof, is amply confirmed by that great body of medical
experience already mentioned. God has delegated to man, a sort of
_subcreative_ power to perpetuate his own race. Such a wonderful work
required a wonderful apparatus. And such is furnished. The texture of
the organs for this purpose is of the most tender and delicate kind,
scarcely equalled by that of the eye, and quite as readily injured; and
this fact ought to be known, and considered. But instead of leaving to
human choice or caprice the execution of the power thus delegated, the
great Creator has made it a matter of _duty_; and has connected with
the lawful discharge of that duty, as with all others, _enjoyment_. But
when this enjoyment is sought in any way, not in accordance with the
laws prescribed by reason and revelation, we diminish (whatever giddy
youth may suppose,) the sum total of our own happiness. Now this is not
the cold spec