Note ER — Chapter XXIV · MALE CHASTITY

The imperious instinct which decrees the perpetuation of the race, says Lewis, can be controlled and directed aright by the consistent knowledge of truth. When the young man has been taught the dignity of virility, when he has learned that purity is conducive to bodily development, while vice carries with it the most serious diseases in its train and the danger not only of ruining his own life but also the health of his future bride and the entire progeny, he will not stoop to vice for the gratification of his desires. The average man is not a criminal, he does not wreck the life and health of his wife and children knowingly and wilfully. In most cases he does it through ignorance of the nature and terrible consequences of the disease.