has gone out of his life. His own good opinion of himself
has suffered deterioration, and he can never face his life-task with
quite the same confidence again. Somehow he feels that the world will
know of his soul's debauch and judge him accordingly.

There is nothing which will mar a life more quickly than the
consciousness of a soul-stain. The loss of self-respect, the loss of
character, is irreparable.

We are beginning to find that there is an intimate connection between
absolute purity _of one's thought and life and his good health, good
thinking, and good work_, a very close connection between the moral
faculties and the physical health; that nothing so exhausts vitality
and vitiates the quality of work and ideals, so takes the edge off of
one's ambition, dulls the brain and aspiration, as impurity of thought
and life. It seems to blight all the faculties and to demoralize the
whole man, so that his efficiency is very much lessened. He does not
speak with the same authority. The air of the conqueror disappears
from his manner. He does not think so clearly; he does not act with so
great certainty, and his self-faith is lost, because confidence is
based upon self-respect, and he can no longer respect himself when he
does things which he would not respect in another.

The fact that his impure acts are done secretly makes no difference.
No one can thoroughly respect himself when he does that which
demoralizes him, which is unbecoming a gentleman, no matter whether
other people know it or not. Impurity blights everything it touches.

It is not enough to be thought pure and clean and sound. One must
actually _be_ pure and clean and sound morally, or his self-respect is
undermined.

_Purity is power because it means integrity of thought, integrity of
conduct_. _It means wholeness_. The impure man can not be a great
power, because he can not thoroughly believe in himself when conscious
that he is rotten in any part of his nature. Impurity works like
leaven, which affects everything in a man. The very consciousness that
the impurity is working within him robs him of power.

Apart from the moral side of this question, let us show how these
things affect one's success in life by sapping the energies, weakening
the nature, lowering one's standards, blurring one's ideals,
discouraging one's ambition, and lessening one's vitality and power.

In the last analysis of success, the mainspring of achievement must