Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners Part 54

The health demands abstinence from unlawful intercourse. Therefore children should be instructed to avoid all impure works of fiction, which tend to inflame the mind and excite the pa.s.sions. Only in total abstinence from illicit pleasures is there safety, morals, and health, while integrity, peace and happiness are the conscious rewards of virtue. Impurity travels downward with intemperance, obscenity and corrupting diseases, to degradation and death. A dissolute, licentious, free-and-easy life is filled with the dregs of human suffering, iniquity and despair. The penalties which follow a violation of the law of chast.i.ty are found to be severe and swiftly retributive.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

2. THE UNION of the s.e.xes in holy Matrimony is a law of nature, finding sanction in both morals and legislation. Even some of the lower animals unite in this union for life and instinctively observe the law of conjugal fidelity with a consistency which might put to blush other animals more highly endowed. It seems important to discuss this subject and understand our social evils, as well as the intense pa.s.sional desires of the s.e.xes, which must be controlled, or they lead to ruin.

3. s.e.xUAL PROPENSITIES are possessed by all, and these must be held in abeyance, until they are needed for legitimate purposes. Hence parents ought to understand the value to their children of mental and physical labor, to elevate and strengthen the intellectual and moral faculties, to develop the muscular system and direct the energies of the blood into healthful channels. Vigorous employment of mind and body engrosses the vital energies and diverts them from undue excitement of the s.e.xual desires.

_Give your young people plenty of outdoor amus.e.m.e.nt; less of dancing and more of croquet and lawn tennis. Stimulate the methods of pure thoughts in innocent amus.e.m.e.nt, and your sons and daughters will mature to manhood and womanhood pure and chaste in character._ {401}

4. IGNORANCE DOES NOT MEAN INNOCENCE.--It is a current idea, especially among our good common people, that the child should be kept in ignorance regarding the mystery of his own body and how he was created or came into the world. This is a great mistake. Parents must know that the sources of social impurity are great, and the child is a hundred times more liable to have his young mind poisoned if entirely ignorant of the functions of his nature than if judiciously enlightened on these important truths by the parent. The parent must give him weapons of defense against the putrid corruption he is sure to meet outside the parental roof. The child cannot get through the A, B, C period of school without it.

5. CONFLICTING VIEWS.--There is a great difference of opinion regarding the age at which the child should be taught the mysteries of nature: some maintain that he cannot comprehend the subject before the age of p.u.b.erty; others say "they will find it out soon enough, it is not best to have them over-wise while they are so young. Wait a while." That is just the point (_they will find it out_), and we ask in all candor, is it not better that they learn it from the pure loving mother, untarnished from any insinuating remark, than that they should learn it from some foul-mouthed libertine on the street, or some giddy girl at school? Mothers! fathers! which think you is the most sensible and fraught with the least danger to your darling boy or girl?

6. DELAY IS FRAUGHT WITH DANGER.--Knowledge on a subject so vitally connected with moral health must not be deferred. It is safe to say that no child, no boy at least in these days of excitement and unrest, reaches the age of ten years without getting some idea of nature's laws regarding parenthood. And ninety-nine chances to one, those ideas will be vile and pernicious unless they come from a wise, loving and pure parent. Now, we entreat you, parents, mothers! do not wait; begin before a false notion has had chance to find lodgment in the childish mind. But remember this is a lesson of life, it cannot be told in one chapter; it is as important as the lessons of love and duty.

7. THE FIRST LESSONS.--Should you be asked by your four or five-year old, "Mamma, where did you get me?" Instead of saying, "The doctor brought you,"

or "G.o.d made you and a stork brought you from Babyland on his back," tell him the truth as you would about any ordinary question. One mother's explanation was something like this: "My dear, you were not made any more than apples are made, or the little chickens are made. Your dolly was {402} made, but it has no life like you have. G.o.d has provided that all living things such as plants, trees, little chickens, little kittens, little babies, etc., should grow from seeds or little tiny eggs. Apples grow, little chickens grow, little babies grow. Apple and peach trees grow from seeds that are planted in the ground, and the apples and peaches grow on the trees. Baby chickens grow inside the eggs that are kept warm by the mother hen for a certain time. Baby boys and girls do not grow inside an egg, but they start to grow inside of a snug warm nest, from an egg that is so small you cannot see it with just your eye." This was not given at once, but from time to time as the child asked questions and in the simplest language, with many ill.u.s.trations from plant and animal life. It may have occupied months, but in time the lesson was fully understood.

8. THE SECOND LESSON.--The second lesson came with the question, "But _where_ is the nest?" The ice is now broken, as it were; it was an easy matter for the mother to say, "The nest in which you grew, dear, was close to your mother's heart inside her body. All things that do not grow inside the egg itself, and which are kept warm by the mother's body, begin to grow from the egg in a nest inside the mother's body." It may be that this mother had access to ill.u.s.trations of the babe in the womb which were shown and explained to the child, a boy. He was pleased and satisfied with the explanations. It meant nothing out of the ordinary any more than a primary lesson on the circulatory system did, it was knowledge on nature in its purity and simplicity taught by mother, and hence caused no surprise. The subject of the male and female generative organs came later; the greatest pains and care was taken to make it clear, the little boy was taught that the _s.e.xual organs_ were made for a high and holy purpose, that their office at present is only to carry off impurities from the system in the fluid form called urine, and that he must never handle his _s.e.xual organs_ nor touch them in any way except to keep them clean, and if he does this, he will grow up a bright, happy and healthy boy. But if he excites or _abuses_ them, he will become puny, sickly and unhappy. All this was explained in language pure and simple. There is now in the boy a st.u.r.dy base of character building along the line of virtue and purity through knowledge.

9. SILLY DIRTY TRASH.--But I hear some mother say "Such silly dirty trash to tell a child!" It is not dirty nor silly; it is nature's untarnished truth. G.o.d has ordained that children should thus be brought into the world, do you call the works of G.o.d silly? Remember, kind mother, and {403} don't forget it, if you fail to teach your children, boys or girls, these important lessons early in life, they will learn them from other sources, perhaps long ere you dream of it, and ninety-nine times out of one hundred they will get improper, perverted, impure and vile ideas of these important truths; besides you have lost their confidence and you will never regain it in these matters. They will never come to mamma for information on these subjects. And, think you, that your son and daughter, later in life will make you their confidant as they ought? Will your beautiful daughter hand the first letters she receives from her lover to mamma to read, and seek her counsel and advice when she replies to them? Will she ask mamma whether it is ever proper to sit in her lover's lap? I think not; you have blighted her confidence and alienated her affections. You have kept knowledge from her that she had a right to know; you even failed to teach her the important truths of menstruation. Troubled and excited at the first menstrual flow, she dashed her feet in cold water hoping to stop the flow.

You know the results--she is now twenty-five but is suffering from it to this day. You, her mother, over fastidious, _so very nice_ you would never mention "_such silly trash_," but by your consummate foolishness and mock modesty you have ruined your daughter's health, and though in later years she may forgive you, yet she can never love and respect you as she ought.

10. "KNOWLEDGE THE PRESERVER OF PURITY."--Laura E. Scammon, writing on this subject, in the _Arena_ of November, 1893, says: "When questions arise that can not be answered by observation, reply to each as simply and directly as you answer questions upon other subjects, giving scientific names and facts, and such explanations as are suited to the comprehension of the child. Treat nature and her laws always with serious, respectful attention.

Treat the holy mysteries of parenthood reverently, never losing sight of the great law upon which are founded all others--the law of love. Say it and sing it, play it and pray it into the soul of your child, that _love is lord of all_."

11. CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.--Observation and common sense should teach every parent that lack of knowledge on these subjects and proper counsel and advice in later years is the main cause of so many charming girls being seduced and led astray, and so many bright promising boys wrecked by _self-abuse_ or _social impurity_. Make your children your confidants early in life, especially in these things, have frequent talks with them on nature, and you will never, other things being equal, mourn over a ruined daughter or a wreckless, debased son.

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Exciting the Pa.s.sions in Children.

1. CONVERSATION BEFORE CHILDREN.--The conduct and conversation of adults before children and youth, how often have I blushed with shame, and kindled with indignation at the conversation of parents, and especially of mothers, to their children: "John, go and kiss Harriet, for she is your sweet-heart." Well may shame make him hesitate and hang his head. "Why, John, I did not think you so great a coward. Afraid of the girls, are you?

That will never do. Come, go along, and hug and kiss her. There, that's a man. I guess you will love the girls yet." Continually is he teased about the girls and being in love, till he really selects a sweet-heart.

2. THE LOSS OF MAIDEN PURITY AND NATURAL DELICACY.--I will not lift the veil, nor expose the conduct of children among themselves. And all this because adults have filled their heads with those impurities which surfeit their own. What could more effectually wear off that natural delicacy, that maiden purity and bashfulness, which form the main barriers against the influx of vitiated Amativeness? How often do those whose modesty has been worn smooth, even take pleasure in thus saying and doing things to raise the blush on the cheek of youth and innocence, merely to witness the effect of this improper illusion upon them; little realizing that they are thereby breaking down the barriers of their virtue, and prematurely kindling the fires of animal pa.s.sion!

3. b.a.l.l.s, PARTIES AND AMUs.e.m.e.nTS.--The entire machinery of b.a.l.l.s and parties, of dances and other amus.e.m.e.nts of young people, tend to excite and inflame this pa.s.sion. Thinking it a fine thing to get in love, they court and form attachments long before either their mental or physical powers are matured. Of course, these young loves, these green-house exotics, must be broken off, and their miserable subjects left burning up with the fierce fires of a flaming pa.s.sion, which, if left alone, would have slumbered on for years, till they were prepared for its proper management and exercise.

4. SOWING THE SEEDS FOR FUTURE RUIN.--Nor is it merely the conversation of adults that does all this mischief; their manners also increase it. Young men take the hands of girls from six to thirteen years old, kiss them, press them, and play with them so as, in a great variety of ways, to excite their innocent pa.s.sions, combined, I grant, with friends.h.i.+p and refinement--for all this is genteely done. They {405} intend no harm, and parents dream of none: and yet their embryo love is awakened, to be again still more easily excited. Maiden ladies, and even married women, often express similar feelings towards lads, not perhaps positively improper in themselves, yet injurious in their ultimate effects.

5. READING NOVELS.--How often have I seen girls not twelve years old, as hungry for a story or novel as they should be for their dinners! A sickly sentimentalism is thus formed, and their minds are sullied with impure desires. Every fas.h.i.+onable young lady must of course read every new novel, though nearly all of them contain exceptionable allusions, perhaps delicately covered over with a thin gauze of fas.h.i.+onable refinement; yet, on that very account, the more objectionable. If this work contained one improper allusion to their ten, many of those fastidious ladies who now eagerly devour the vulgarities of Dumas, and the double-entendres of Bulwer, and even converse with gentlemen about their contents, would discountenance or condemn it as improper. _Shame on novel-reading women_; for they cannot have pure minds or unsullied feelings but Cupid and the beaux, and waking of dreams of love, are fast consuming their health and virtue.

6. THEATER-GOING.--Theaters and theatrical dancing, also inflame the pa.s.sions, and are "the wide gate" of "the broad road" of moral impurity.

Fas.h.i.+onable music is another, especially the verses set to it, being mostly love-sick ditties, or sentimental odes, breathing this tender pa.s.sion in its most melting and bewitching strains. Improper prints often do immense injury in this respect, as do also b.a.l.l.s, parties, annuals, newspaper articles, exceptional works, etc.

7. THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.--Stop for one moment and think for yourself and you will be convinced that the sentiment herein announced is for your good and the benefit of all mankind.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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p.u.b.erty, Virility and Hygienic Laws.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

1. WHAT IS p.u.b.eRTY?--The definition is explained in another portion of this book, but it should be understood that it is not a prompt or immediate change; it is a slow extending growth and may extend for many years. The ripening of physical powers do not take place when the first signs of p.u.b.erty appear.

2. PROPER AGE.--The proper age for p.u.b.erty should vary from twelve to eighteen years. As a general rule, in the more vigorous and the more addicted to athletic exercise or out-door life, this change is slower in making its approach.

3. HYGIENIC ATTENTION.--Youths at this period should receive special private attention. They should be taught the purpose of the s.e.xual organs and the proper hygienic laws that govern them, and they should also be taught to rise in the morning and not to lie in bed after waking up, because it is largely owing to this habit that the secret vice is contracted. One of the common causes of premature excitement in many boys is a tight foreskin. It may cause much evil and ought always to be remedied. Ill-fitting garments often cause much irritation in children and produce unnatural pa.s.sions. It is best to have boys sleep in separate beds and not have them sleep together if it can be avoided. {407}

4. PROPER INFLUENCE.--Every boy and girl should be carefully trained to look with disgust on everything that is indecent in word or action. Let them be taught a sense of shame in doing shameful things, and teach them that modesty is honorable, and that immodesty is indecent and dishonorable.

Careful training at the proper age may save many a boy or girl from ruin.

5. s.e.xUAL Pa.s.sIONS.--The s.e.xual pa.s.sions may be a fire from heaven, or a subtle flame from h.e.l.l. It depends upon the government and proper control.

The n.o.blest and most unselfish emotions take their arise in the pa.s.sion of s.e.x. Its sweet influence, its elevating ties, its vibrations and harmony, all combine to make up the n.o.ble and courageous traits of man.

6. WHEN Pa.s.sIONS BEGIN.--It is thought by some that pa.s.sions begin at the age of p.u.b.erty, but the pa.s.sions may be produced as early as five or ten years. All depends upon the training or the want of it. Self-abuse is not an uncommon evil at the age of eight or ten. A company of bad boys often teach an innocent child that which will develop his ruin. A boy may feel a sense of pleasure at eight and produce a slight discharge, but not of s.e.m.e.n. Thus it is seen that parents may by neglect do their child the greatest injury.

7. FALSE MODESTY.--Let there be no false modesty on part of the parents.

Give the child the necessary advice and instructions as soon as necessary.

8. THE MAN UNs.e.xED, by Mutilation or Masturbation. Eunuchs are proverbial for their cruelty and crafty and unsympathizing dispositions. Their mental powers are feeble and their physical strength is inferior. They lack courage and physical endurance. When a child is operated upon before the age of p.u.b.erty, the voice retains its childish treble, the limbs their soft and rounded outlines, and the neck acquires a feminine fulness; no beard makes its appearance. In ancient times and up to this time in Oriental nations eunuchs are found. They are generally slaves who have suffered mutilation at a tender age. It is a scientific fact that where boys have been taught the practice of masturbation in their early years, say from eight to fourteen years of age, if they survive at all they often have their powers reduced to a similar condition of a eunuch. They generally however suffer a greater disadvantage. Their health will be more or less injured. In the eunuch the power of s.e.xual intercourse is not entirely lost but of course there is sterility and little if any satisfaction, and the same thing may be true of the victim of self-abuse. {408}

9. SIGNS OF VIRILITY.--As the young man develops in strength and years the s.e.xual appet.i.te will manifest itself. The secretion of the male known as the seed or s.e.m.e.n depends for the life-transmitting power upon little minute bodies called spermatozoa. These are very active and numerous in a healthy secretion, being many hundreds in a single drop and a single one of them is capable to bring about conception in a female. Dr. Napheys in his "Transmission of Life," says: "The secreted fluid has been frozen and kept at a temperature of zero for four days, yet when it was thawed these animalcules, as they are supposed to be, were as active as ever. They are not, however, always present, and when present may be of variable activity.

In young men, just past p.u.b.erty, and in aged men, they are often scarce and languid in motion." At the proper age the secretion is supposed to be the most active, generally at the age of twenty-five, and decreases as age increases.

10. HYGIENIC RULE.--The man at mid-life should guard carefully his pa.s.sions and the husband his virile powers, and as the years progress, steadily wean himself more from his desire, for his pa.s.sions will become weaker with age and any excitement in middle life may soon debilitate and destroy his virile powers.

11. FOLLIES OF YOUTH.--Dr. Napheys says: "Not many men can fritter away a decade or two of years in dissipation and excess, and ever hope to make up their losses by rigid surveillance in later years." "The sins of youth are expiated in age," is a proverb which daily examples ill.u.s.trate. In proportion as p.u.b.erty is precocious, will decadence be premature; the excesses of middle life draw heavily on the fortune of later years. "The mill of the G.o.ds grinds slow, but it grinds exceedingly fine," and though nature may be a tardy creditor, she is found at last to be an inexorable one.

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Our Secret Sins.

1. Pa.s.sIONS.--Every healthful man has s.e.xual desires, and he might as well refuse to satisfy his hunger as to deny their existence. The Creator has given us various appet.i.tes, intended they should be indulged, and has provided the means.

2. REASON.--While it is true that a healthy man has strongly developed s.e.xual pa.s.sions, yet, G.o.d has crowned man with reason, and with a proper exercise of this wonderful faculty of the human mind no lascivious thoughts need to control the pa.s.sions. A pure heart will develop pure thoughts and bring out a good life.

3. RIOTING IN VISIONS.--Dr. Lewis says: "Rioting in visions of nude women may exhaust one as much as an excess in actual intercourse. There are mult.i.tudes who would never spend the night with an abandoned female, but who rarely meet a young girl that their imaginations are not busy with her person. This species of indulgence is well-nigh universal; and it is the source of all other forms--the fountain from which the external vices spring, and the nursery of masturbation."

4. COMMITTING ADULTERY IN THE HEART.--A young man who allows his mind to dwell upon the vision of nude women will soon become a victim of ruinous pa.s.sion, and either fall under the influence of lewd women or resort to self-abuse. The man who has no control over his mind and allows impure thoughts to be a.s.sociated with the name of every female that may be suggested to his mind, is but committing adultery in his heart, just as guilty at heart as though he had committed the deed.