le encourage young men to sin.

2. A SAD CONDITION.--It is constantly affirmed by prostitutes, that amongst
married men are found their chief supporters. Evidence from such a quarter
must be received with considerable caution. Nevertheless, we believe that
there is much truth in this statement. Here, again, we lay {434} the ax to
the root of the tree; the married man who dares affirm that there is a
particle of physical necessity for this sin, is a liar, and the truth is
not in him. Whether these men be princes, peers, legislators, professional
men, mechanics, or workmen, they are moral pests, a scandal to the social
state, and a curse to the nation.

3. EXCESSES.--Many married men exhaust themselves by these excesses; they
become irritable, liable to cold, to rheumatic affections, and nervous
depression. They find themselves weary when they rise in the morning.
Unfitted for close application to business, they become dilatory and
careless, often lapsing into entire lack of energy, and not seldom into the
love of intoxicating stimulants. Numbers of husbands and wives entering
upon these experiences lose the charm of health, the cheerfulness of life
and converse. Home duties become irksome to the wife; the brightness,
vivacity, and bloom natural to her earlier years, decline; she is spoken of
as highly nervous, poorly, and weak, when the whole truth is that she is
suffering from physical exhaustion which she cannot bear. Her features
become angular, her hair prematurely gray, she rapidly settles down into
the nervous invalid, constantly needing medical aid, and, if possible,
change of air.

4. IGNORANCE.--These conditions are brought about in many cases through
ignorance on the part of those who are married. Multitudes of men have
neither read, heard, nor known the truth of this question. We sympathize
with our fellow-men in this, that we have been left in practical ignorance
concerning the exceeding value and legitimate uses of these functions of
our being. Some know, that, had they known these things in the early days
of their married life, it would have proved to them knowledge of exceeding
value. If this counsel is followed, thousands of homes will scarcely know
the need of the physician's presence.

5. ANIMAL PASSION.--Common-sense teaches that children who are begotten in
the heat of animal passion, are likely to be licentious when they grow up.
Many parents through excesses of eating and drinking, become inflamed