From the age when the organs of reproduction are beginning slowly to unfold themselves for their future work, the temptation to yield to physical sensation or mental impression increases.
The inseparable relation of our moral and physical structure is seen in full force at the age of twelve or fourteen. Confirmed habits of mental impurity may at any age destroy the body from the physical results of such habits. My attention was painfully drawn to the dangers of self-abuse more than forty years ago by an agonized letter received from an intelligent and pious lady, dying from the effects of this inveterate habit. She had been a teacher in a Sunday-school, and the delight of a refined and intelligent circle of friends. But this habit, begun in childhood in ignorance of any moral or physical wrong which might result to her nature, had become so rooted that her brain was giving way under the effects of nervous derangement thus produced, whilst her will had lost the power of self-control.
It will thus be seen that there are two grave dangers attending the practice of masturbation.
The first evil is the effect upon the mind through the brain and nervous system from evil communications or evil literature. The mind is thus prematurely awakened to take in and dwell upon a series of impressions which awaken precocious sexual instinct. This precocity gives an undue and even dominating power to this instinct over the other human faculties. Coming into play before reason is strengthened or the sense of responsibility awakened, there is no counterpoise or principle of guidance to the rapidly developing powers of procreation. Thus the precocious stimulus of childhood, even if it has not undermined the individual health, becomes a direct preparation for the selfishness of lust in the adult.
The other grave danger incurred by the practice of masturbation is the risk of its becoming an over-mastering habit, from the ease with which it can be indulged; also from the insidious and increasing power of the temptation when yielded to, and from its association with the times when the individual is alone, and particularly the quiet hours of the night.
In the adult who yields to solitary vice, Nature’s marked distinction between the beneficent effect of spontaneous healthy relief and the injurious action of self-induced irritation is destroyed. Individual self-control, the highest distinctive mark of the human being, is abandoned. In this way the evil habit may become a real obsession, leading to destruction of mental and physical health, to insanity, or to suicide.
It will thus be seen that this first abuse of the sexual faculty given to us by our Creator—viz., the practice of masturbation—is a special danger to the very young as well as a temptation of the adult, and that it is an injury to mind as well as body, through the inseparable union of the moral and physical elements of our human constitution.
CHAPTER IV
On the Abuses of Sex—II. Fornication
The second abuse of sex to be dwelt on by the Christian physiologist is the practice of fornication. One broad distinction separates this form of vice from masturbation—viz., that it necessarily affects two persons instead of only one. Its effects upon the mental and physical development of both the male and female must therefore engage the attention of the physiologist. This necessity of considering the effects produced by a joint act upon two separate individualities greatly complicates the inquiry.
It is so much easier for the popular mind to regard any act performed by an individual or by one sex as exclusively affecting one particular individual or sex engaged in its performance that it is extremely difficult for most persons to fix their minds steadily upon the inseparable double character of this exceptional human act. It requires a certain amount of generalizing power to do this; and the power of generalization, which leads to the recognition of abstract truth and to the perception that a true principle is of far higher value than any number of phenomena, is an advanced attainment of human beings. Abstract truth commonly seems vague as compared with a material fact.