that ye are not your own?" And in the same epistle to the Corinthians, chap. iii. verse 17, he solemnly warns us, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Doubtlessly, many of these passages refer primarily to excesses with women, but they all point clearly enough, not so much at the act, as at the filthy and polluted state of mind and heart, out of which originate all the varied forms of Sensuality, not excluding Onanism itself, and which, if present in any of their disgusting characters inevitably react upon the mind, rendering it still more corrupt. Even the Pagan world of ancient Rome, immersed in sensuality almost beyond parallel, if we may credit Martial, the most celebrated epigrammatist of the times, and who may be adduced as speaking the language of the great masses of the people, these held the practice of self-pollution in worse than abhorred contempt. "Hoc nihil esse putes? Scelus est mihi, crede: sed ingens You think 'tis nothing, 'tis a crime believe ! A crime so great you scarcely can conceive." "We, however, have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto, if we take heed, we do well." This, certainly, ought ever to be regarded as a powerful inducement to dissuade us, not only from the grosser forms of sensual excess, but to warn the thoughtless against the terrific practice of secret pollution. For God, as the Creator of this curiously contrived frame of ours, hath put upon it a measure of his own glory, the shadow of divinity. Our bodies are declared to be the fitting residence of himself, in his power and presence, he formed, and by that presence sustains us in being. Wherefore, our bodies, perishable and mortal though they be, yet partaking of this honour, it is not less our duty than our highest privilege to retain them in honour. If the temples of heathens were not suffered to be profaned by any pollution, how much more ought the thoughtless voluptuary to respect, if not himself, for his own sake, yet the curiously constructed workmanship and framework of the Great Creator, of that being who will surely avenge himself, in pain and agony, inflicted upon the violators of his own laws. We are told, in the unerring oracles of truth: "Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price, wherefore, glorify God in your bodies and in your spirits, which are his." Paul speaking of heathens, observes that, "being given up to uncleanness they dishonoured their own bodies ;" and in another place, "that it is the will of God that we abstain from uncleanness." Indeed, it would be endless to recapitulate all the scriptural passages relating to the pollutions of the flesh. Let any unprejudiced individual examine the sacred writings for himself, and where distinct mention is made of vicious acts, he will not fail to perceive, that there is not any one other crime, so many times named, as Uncleanness, and how can any person be more accurately designated, as guilty of this sin, than he who is addicted to self-pollution? Nay, if we reflect ever so superficially, on the ordinary laws of God's moral government and providence, if we think of the natural end and design of marriage, in all countries, and the way in which it is evidently intended our species should be propagated, reason itself would instruct us that to destroy that end must be very offensive to God, as well as an unpardonable crime against the well-being of society at large. Whatever be the form of sensual excess, all alike tend to destroy sexual power, all tend to the production of a weakly, puny progeny, beings who are likely to bring no honour or usefulness to the state, but rather a sickly burden, dying without usefulness. And if this be true of excess in general, it holds infinitely true of selfpollution, justifying the assertion, that the crime is in itself, monstrous and unnatural; in its practice, filthy, odious to extremity, its guilt is crying, and its consequences ruinous. It destroys conjugal affection, perverts natural inclination, and tends to extinguish the hopes of posterity. As to the effects of this vicious practice upon the body, they are not less remarkable than the strange debility which clouds the mind. Let once this forbidden and surreptitious form of delusive enjoyment gain the force of habit, and instantly down falls the barrier of intellectual control. And be it observed, there is no act which so soon becomes habitual. Tobacco and spirituous potations are in the first instance offensive, and time is requisite to reconcile the healthy organs to their use, perhaps a longer period to render them agreeable. But as to the act of self-pollution, its first essay is ushered in with a new, wild, and intoxicating delight. Its very secrecy aids the infatuation. The stream once crossed, the Rubicon once passed, all may be done effectually, that is evil for time and eternity. To retrace that step, to efface it as a blot from memory and conscience is impossible. And so, often that monitor within becomes seared, deadened, hardened, till its feeble voice, from oft repeated criminality becomes drowned in the mad and urgently loud calls of unnatural passion. And thus it is, that the mind now depraved, becomes not the reason ing governor but the goad, the stimulant to acts which sooner or later will abolish and destroy completely every vestige of intellect or rationality. All is perverted, turned upside down. Passion, which ought to assume the position of a necessary, yet docile and submissive slave, assumes the reins. The empire which this odious practice gains over the senses, is beyond description; "for no sooner has this uncleanness got master over the heart, but forthwith it pursues the man everywhere, and keeps its possession of him at all times and in all places." Upon the most serious occasions, and in the very acts of religion, he ever and anon finds himself transported with lustful conceptions and desires, which incessantly follow him and take up his thoughts. What moral region does that man live in, what sensibility does he cherish, that now safe and free would not unite all the energies of his nature to avoid so fatal a precipice, or if unfortunately the first step be taken, that would not struggle to disentangle himself from the grasp of this smilingly seductive, yet cruelly murderous monster? MADNESS. As the nervous system suffers, the brain becomes the subject of disease and melancholy indifference; disgust, misanthropy, pass through their various grades into The startling truth is not to be concealed, that self-pollution is frequently the sole cause of INSANITY. If the happy married man indulge to excess in the legitimate gratifications of the matrimonial couch, affections of the head are frequently observed, giddiness, dizziness, an unaccountable uneasiness, want of sleep, or perhaps drowsiness. We know that several celebrated men have actually died in the very act of coition from the excitement of determined effort and failing power. But resolute persistence in effecting seminal discharges by the requisite friction, which constitutes self-pollution, is far more dangerous and deadly. If it do not produce convulsions and sudden death, which is really sometimes the case, the brain is apt to become diseased in a most remarkable manner. So Doctor Armstrong was accustomed to teach the pupils of the Borough Schools. "The solitary vice of Onanism," he observes, "produces affections of the head." And he details in his published lectures, the case of "a youth 17 or 18 years of age, who went, at the age of ten, to a school where this vice was very common, and he became the subject of it, and from being a fine active and clever boy he became a perfect idiot. His eyes became prominent, his pupils dilated, he had pains in his head and down the course of the spine, loss of memory, a silly unmeaning expression of the countenance, and a tottering gait." He declares his conviction, no doubt founded on repeated observation: "I think I should know a person in the street who has addicted himself to this vice, by merely walking behind him, from his peculiar gait." Is this wonderful? Nay, it is merely illustrative of the value and power of close observation, and it may serve usefully to alarm some poor infatuated youth, who may foolishly imagine his secret pollutions are known only in the recesses of his own conscience. And that these oft repeated acts should really tend to insanity, if we had not the evidence of the fact, it would not be unphilosophical to suppose, for the mind continuously and morbidly directed to this one single idea and the act connected with it, becomes debilitated from the preponderance and perpetual recurrence of the same unchanging train of thought and feeling, and such is the sympathy of the generative organs to the act which impresses them, that the physical and moral sen D |