n of children and
the fostering of such mutual love between husband and wife as is
conducive to domestic happiness. Therefore this passion is to be kept
under careful and rational constraint. This the law of morality
requires; all nations have ever exacted that this passion shall be
subject to established rules; no free-love has ever been tolerated where
there was the least pretence to civilization, and I do not know that it
was ever permitted even among barbarians.

Even the distant approach that Mormonism made towards free-love has been
absolutely condemned and repressed by the common-sense of the American
people, as incompatible with civilization. In fact, all history
testifies that the true civilization of any race or country rises or
falls with the restraints imposed on the passion of lust; no polygamous
nation has ever been more than half-civilized. The greatness of Rome and
Greece decayed when the laws of social purity declined; and in our own
day the immorality of what is called "the social evil" is the darkest
stain on modern civilization.

And what we say of civilization or social soundness, the soundness of
the body politic, applies in a great measure to individual soundness,
the health of every person's mind and body. Personal purity promotes
health and vigor, it lends beauty to form, gives a keen edge to the
intellect, adds energy and brings success to manhood, and prepares for
enduring and honored old age. Venereal excesses, on the contrary,
undermine the vigor of the constitution, bring on a host of bodily
infirmities, exhaust the system before the proper time, debauch and
degrade the mind and will, and prepare their victims for an early grave
or a decrepit old age.

II. But how can a passion so ardent be properly restrained? In
particular, what can a physician do to prevent the manifold injuries
which, if not properly controlled, it will bring to his patients? These
are practical questions directly to our purpose.

The first requisite for all effective action is to have correct
knowledge and strong convictions on a subject. No one will check a
passion with firmness if he have a lingering doubt as to whether, after
all, he is strictly bound to restrain it. As a man's mind matures, at
least if his mind be upright and not distorted by the strain of a ruling
passion, he understands more and more thoroughly that his perfection
consists and his highest interests lie in obeying at all times the law
of reas