Page:The Virile Powers of Superb Manhood.djvu/80

72 clear, would any intelligent person dare to lay down rules for all to follow indiscriminately?

This is a much-mooted question! The average physician will tell you that a man is better and stronger if temperate indulgences of a proper character are afforded, but most of the writers along sexual lines strenuously defend one's ability to remain absolutely continent all through life without suffering the slightest from this abstinence.

It is undoubtedly considered desirable to remain continent until the fullness of complete maturity has been reached, and the more deficiency there is in those powers necessary to a perfect man or woman, the less harm there will result from a life of absolute continence. Some, no doubt, could be continent all their life and still apparently enjoy the average powers, but their ability thus to deviate from Nature's laws with comparative impunity indicates that the completeness of fully developed manhood has never been reached—that the powers which accompany perfect maturity are still dormant.