To private knowledge is added the weight of solemn public testimony from men of ardent temperament who have reached the full vigour of life in the practice of entire chastity. Every one who listened to the weighty words of Père Hyacinthe, spoken in St. James’s Hall before a crowded audience a few years ago, received the proof of the co-existence of vigorous health with stainless virtue. Similar testimony, called forth by the false teaching and dangerous tendencies of the present time, has been given by many others, proving the principle that the human sexual passion when uncorrupted, does not enslave the man; that the possibility of perfect health and perfect virtue is the natural endowment of every human being.
A modern writer of unsurpassed genius, Honoré de Balzac (whose writings are injurious because they are such wonderfully vivid representations of horrible social disease) was himself a man of singularly chaste life, and attributes his power to that fact. Brought up by his father in strict self-control, his power of Will was not destroyed; he preserved his respect for women, his belief in noble love. His intimate friend thus writes of him: ‘Above all he insisted on the necessity of absolute purity of life, such as the Church prescribes for monks. “That,” said he, “develops the powers of the mind to the highest degree, and imparts to those who practise it unknown faculties. For myself, I accepted all the monastic conditions necessary for workers. One only passion carried me out of my studious habits—it was a passion for outdoor observation of the manners and morals of the faubourg where I lived.”’
Strong testimony as to the compatibility of chastity and health is furnished by the Catholic priesthood. Although it is well known that there are large numbers of men who break their vow, and men who should never have entered the priesthood, it is also well known as a positive fact that vast numbers of men are found in every age and country who honestly maintain their vow, and who, by avoidance of temptation, by direction of the mind to intellectual pursuits and devotion to great humanitarian objects, pass long lives in health and vigour. The effect on the world of enforced celibacy is, of course, disastrous; but the power that has been gained by the institution of the priesthood is indubitable, and the one object here insisted on—viz., the compatibility of physical health with the observance of chastity—is proved by it on a large scale.
The Shaker communities of New Lebanon and other settlements contain a large number of middle-aged as well as elderly men, who live an absolutely celibate life and enjoy excellent health.[37] The same is true of Moravians, etc.
The possibility of controlling this great human instinct is further shown by the experience of women. We see that under the effect of training to a moral life and the action of public opinion a great body of women in our own country constantly lead a virtuous life, frequently in spite of physical instincts as strong as those of men, and always in spite of mental instincts still more powerful. That the feeling of sex regarded as a mental passion is even stronger in women than in men must be evident to all who give to the word ‘strength’ its true signification—the signification of mental as well as physical phenomena in proportion to the powers of the individual. The demands of women are greater than those of men; they desire more and more the thought and devotion of those they love. They often display a persistent fidelity, terrible in its earnestness, when they have had the misfortune to become attached to an unworthy object. The weak virtue of the mass of women, exposed to constant temptation, indicates the insatiable craving of the woman’s heart for love. It is never at rest; it always needs its objects, and when these affections are degraded from their high purpose and defrauded of their legitimate objects, they become the greatest obstacle to human progress. No solution of the difficult problem of sexual relationships is possible, until the complete parallelism (not identity) of the sexual nature in the two sexes is recognised, and the significance of woman’s mental necessities understood. Women themselves must learn the meaning of the high nature that God has given them, and perceive how great a responsibility rests upon them in the mighty work of raising the human race out of the old thraldom of lust into the reign of love. That large numbers of women, so richly endowed with the high principle of sex, retain their health whilst leading celibate lives, is one more proof of that adaptation of this principle to the higher character of our nature, which transforms a simple brute instinct into a grand human force.
The foregoing facts distinctly prove that the exercise of the sexual powers is not indispensable to the health of human beings; that men of all ages can live in full vigorous health without such exercise; and that to the young it is an immense physical advantage that they should so live. This is the important principle to be first established. The subjects of temptation, of customs, of artificial wants, etc., are other questions, to be considered by themselves. Thought will be inevitably confused, and the important practical arrangements of the future hopelessly perplexed, if all sorts of questions are jumbled together; if practical difficulties, social phases, temporary phenomena, are allowed to obscure or completely hide the great guide of humanity—Eternal Truth. A principle clearly established is that portion of truth needed for present guidance. It must be thoroughly understood and resolutely held to, as the only clue which can guide us slowly through the dark labyrinth of error, vice, and misery. Such a guiding principle is found in the essential nature of the human sexual faculty—its distinctive power of self-control. The more this principle is considered, understood, and valued, the more it will be found that it contains the power of purifying society, enlightening legislation, and raising our status as a nation.
The aim, therefore, of all wise parents should be to secure those influences which will preserve the purity of their sons until the age of twenty-five, when marriage, as a rule, should be made possible and encouraged. This is the wise practice, derived from experience, applicable to all nations living in temperate climes. Earlier marriage may sometimes be wise, but it is not the broad rule. That the individual may remain in health until a later period and throughout life has been proved, but it is a national loss that the best years of vigorous manhood should not stamp themselves upon the future generation.
The unmarried life after thirty years of age is often injured in mind or body. The exceptions arising from character or occupation, from religious enthusiasm or devotion to some great work, do not refute the general statement. It must necessarily be so. As sex is a natural and most powerful human force, there is risk of injury in permanently stifling it. Marriage being its true method of expression and education, the character is injured through want of this development. It is only through honourable marriage that the beneficial growth of manly character of mind and body can be attained. The illegitimate exercise of the sexual powers is a source of direful social and national evil, and requires those strong restraints of both law and custom which help to educate a nation. No fear that some individuals, unable to marry, may suffer in their private lives, can for one moment justify the establishment of practices or the sanctioning of customs which are destructive to the general welfare. Far more evil, mental and physical, arises to the race from the effects of licentiousness than from any effects of abstinence.
CHAPTER IV
Methods by which Sexual Morality may be Promoted
The important question will present itself to everyone who realizes the gravity of the dangers which we have now exposed: What practical steps can be taken to secure the truer standard of morality which will remodel the education of youth? This weighty question can only gradually receive a complete answer, as the intelligence of our age awakens to the fact that the attainment of true sexual morality is the fundamental principle of national growth. The first indispensable basis of all efforts for practical reform is the acceptance of a true principle of action. The great guiding principle now laid down is this: that Vice—that is, the illegitimate exercise of the sexual faculty, regardless of religious conscience and the welfare of others—is not essential to the constitution of the human being, but is the result of removable conditions. The importance of this truth is immense. Its acceptance or denial produces two diametrically opposite courses of action—action in education, in society, and in legislation. It is one of those abstract truths which are stronger than all facts, being eternal instead of temporary, moulding practical action instead of depending on it. The belief or denial of this truth may express itself in varying forms, according to the age or country, according to the more or less logical workings of a nation’s mind; but whether clearly recognised in all its bearings, or blindly acted on in a confused and near-sighted way, the results will always follow in the same direction. The acceptance of this truth will always tend to diminish and gradually destroy evil; its denial must inevitably intensify and extend evil.