aptain of the foretop.

The greatest problem of my life, and perhaps of any life at the age of
twenty-one, was the problem of sex instinct. I have often wondered why
that problem is discussed so meagrely. I have often wondered why, for
instance, Kipling and Frank Bullen and W. Clark Russell, in discussing
the life of soldiers and sailors with whom this is a specialized
problem, have not frankly discussed the terrific battle that every
full-blooded man must fight on this question.

The moment I arrived in that foreign port I was overwhelmed with a
sense of personal freedom. There I was, with a splendid physical
organization that had just come into its own, and around me in the mess
and on the ship's deck and on the streets of the cities--everywhere--I
heard nothing else but conversation on this problem. To nine out of
every ten men it was a joke. It was laughed at, played with, and I
knew, of course, that young men of my own age were being smashed on the
rocks of this problem.

The British Navy serves out once or twice a week a ration, which is
one of the biggest jokes of naval life. It is a small ration of lime
juice, and the rumoured purpose of it is to modify in some degree this
tremendous natural sex instinct. To most of us it was like spitting on
a burning building--the battle went on fiercer every day of life! I
tackled it from two points of view; first, the moral point of view. My
religion demanded purity, continence and self-mastery. The other point
of view--I don't think this was clear to me at the time; I don't
believe that I intentionally pursued this course with the object in
view that it actually accomplished; nevertheless, whether intentional
or unintentional, planned or unplanned, the effect was produced. The
physical work required of me was light, very light, and all my leisure
time was spent in study. I studied so hard and so conscientiously that
I tired not only my mind, but my body. There came a time when I was
dimly conscious, however, that I was doing two things by hard study: I
was preserving my body, conserving my vital energy, and at the same
time training my mind, gathering information and equipping myself
intellectually. At the present moment my body is as lithe, as powerful
and as enduring as the body of a youth of twenty, and I attribute this
wealth of health to the fact that twenty-five years ago, I tackled
this problem of self-mastery and laid the foundations for my present
strength.

W