Page:The Virile Powers of Superb Manhood.djvu/83

Rh him to learn and practice self-abuse often long before puberty has been passed.

The writer has seen and heard of instances of absolute continence being maintained by men who have somehow escaped the conditions that lead up to self-abuse, but he has never yet known a man to lead a permanently continent life after once contracting this habit. It seems that, after a drain of this kind upon the system has once been established, the sexual passions develop prematurely, and often become too strong to be ignored far earlier in life than they would if normal conditions had existed. Therefore much of the sexual intemperance met with at the present is really due originally to the habit of masturbation, which, in nine cases out of ten, is made possible by the worse than criminal neglect of parents.

Every law of nature emphasizes the necessity for marriage; animal life everywhere gives evidence to this. The highest degree of attainable physical perfection can