[14]. Will our sensitive fine ladies blush at the plain good sense and simplicity of such an observation? Let me tell them, the indelicacy is in their own minds, not in the words of the French mother.
[15]. For a vice so unnatural as onanism there could be no possible temptation, and therefore no existence, were not men unnaturally and mischievously situated. It first appeared, probably, in monasteries; and has been perpetuated by the more or less anti-social and demoralizing relation in which the sexes stand to each other, in almost all countries. In estimating the consequences of the present false situation of society, we must set down to the black account the wretched, wretched consequences (terminating not unfrequently in incurable insanity) of this vice, the preposterous offspring of modern civilization. Physicians say that onanism at present prevails, to a lamentable extent, both in this country and in England. If the recommendations contained in this little treatise were generally followed, it would probably totally disappear in a single generation.
[16]. See letter of Percy Byssche Shelley, published in the “Lion,” of December 5, 1828.
[17]. Every reflecting mind will distinguish between the unreasoning—sometimes even generous, imprudence of youthful passion, and the calculating selfishness of the matured and heartless libertine. It is a melancholy truth, that pseudo-civilization produces thousands of seducers by profession, who, while daily calling the heavens to witness their eternal affections, have no affection for any thing on earth but their own precious and profligate selves. It is to characters so utterly worthless as these that my observations apply.
[18]. Jesus said unto her, “Neither do I condemn thee.”—John viii. 11.
[19]. What is the actual state of society in Great Britain and even in this republic, that pseudo-civilization, in her superlative delicacy, should so fastidiously scruple to speak of or to sanction a simple, moral, effectual check to population? Are her sons all chaste and temperate, and her daughters all passionless and pure? I might disclose, if I would, in this very city of New York—and in our neighbour city of Philadelphia—scenes and practices that have come to light from time to time, and that would furnish no very favourable answer to the question. I might ask, whether all the houses of assignation in these two cities are frequented by the known profligate alone? or whether some of the most outwardly respectable fathers—ay, mothers of families—have not been found in resorts supported and frequented only by “good society” like themselves?
As regards Great Britain, I might quote the evidence delivered before a “Committee of the House of Commons, on Labourers’ Wages,” by Henry Drummond, a banker, magistrate, and large land-owner in the county of Surrey, in which the following question and answer occur: Q. “What is the practice you allude to of forcing marriages?” A. “I believe nothing is more erroneous than the assertion, that the poor laws tend to imprudent marriages; I never knew an instance of a girl being married until she was with child, nor ever knew of a marriage taking place through a calculation for future support.” Mr. Drummond’s assertions were confirmed by other equally respectable witnesses; and from what I myself have learnt in conversation with some of the chief manufacturers of England, I am convinced, that the statement, as regards the working population in the chief manufacturing districts, is scarcely exaggerated.
I might go on to state, that the spot on which the Foundling Hospital in Dublin now stands, formerly went by the name of “Murderer’s Lane,” from the number of child murders that were perpetrated in the vicinity.
I might adduce the testimony of respectable witnesses in proof, that, even among the married, the blighting effects of ergot are not unfrequently incurred; by those very persons, probably, who, in public, would think fit to be terribly shocked at this little book.
But why multiply proofs? The records of every court of justice, nay, the tittle tattle of every fashionable drawing-room, sufficiently marks the real character of this prudish and pharisaical world of ours.