Note 29 — Chapter II · Social Results of Neglecting these Physiological Laws

The frequent opinion that a limited amount of fornication is a very trivial matter, that the individual may become an excellent father of a family and good citizen in spite of such indulgence, is based on the grave error of regarding sexual relations as the act of one instead of two individuals, and limited in their effects to the moment of occurrence. The moral character of such indulgence is, however, determined by its effects upon the after-life of two human beings—viz., its effect on the citizen, whose judgment becomes injured in relation to this great subject of national welfare, through early experience, and on the partner in vice whose life is one of growing degradation. These two inevitable facts remain through life.