an
almost irresistible tendency to vice. Viewing the matter from this
stand-point, what wonder that licentiousness is rife! that true
chastity is among the rarest of virtues!

Prof. O. W. Holmes remarks on this subject: "There are people who think
that everything may be done if the doctor, be he educator or physician,
be only called in season. No doubt; but _in season_ would often be a
hundred or two years before the child was born, and people never send
so early as that." "Each of us is only the footing up of a double column
of figures that goes back to the first pair. Every unit tells, and some
of them are _plus_ and some _minus_. If the columns don't add up right,
it is commonly because we can't make out all of the figures."

It cannot be doubted that the throngs of deaf, blind, crippled, idiotic
unfortunates who were "born so," together with a still larger class
of dwarfed, diseased, and constitutionally weak individuals, are the
lamentable results of the violation of some sexual law on the part of
their progenitors.

If parents would stop a moment to consider the momentous
responsibilities involved in the act of bringing into existence a human
being; if they would reflect that the qualities imparted to the new
being will affect its character to all eternity; if they would recall
the fact that they are about to produce a mirror in which will be
reflected their own characters divested of all the flimsy fabrics which
deceive their fellow-men, revealing even the secret imaginings of their
hearts,--there would surely be far less of sin, disease, and misery
born into the world than at the preset day; but we dare not hope for
such a reform. To effect it, would require such a revolution in the
customs of society, such a radical reform in the habits and characters
of individuals, as nothing short of a temporal millennium would be able
to effect.

It is quite probable that some writers have greatly exaggerated the
possible results which may be attained by proper attention to the laws
under consideration. All cannot be equally beautiful; every child
cannot be a genius; the influence of six thousand years of transgression
cannot be effaced in a single generation; but persevering,
conscientious efforts to comply with every requirement of health,
purity, morality, and the laws of nature, will accomplish wonders in
securing healthy children with good dispositions, brilliant intellects,
and beautiful bodies.

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