ociation largely results in mutual
corruption. With others, the means of sensual gratification is found
out by personal action; whilst in other cases fallen and depraved men
have not hesitated to debauch the minds of mere children by teaching
them this debasing practice.

4. Thousands of youths and young men have only to use the
looking-glass to see the portrait of one guilty of this loathsome sin.
The effects are plainly discernible in the boy's appearance. The
face and hands become pale and bloodless. The eye is destitute of its
natural fire and lustre. The flesh is soft and flabby, the muscles
limp and lacking healthy firmness. In cases where the habit has become
confirmed, and where the system has been drained of this vital force,
it is seen in positive ugliness, in a pale and cadaverous appearance,
slovenly gait, slouching walk, and an impaired memory.

5. It is obvious that if the most vital physical force of a boy's life
is being spent through this degrading habit--a habit, be it observed,
of rapid growth, great strength, and difficult to break--he must
develop badly. In thousands of cases the result is seen in a low
stature, contracted chest, weak lungs, and liability to sore throat.
Tendency to cold, indigestion, depression, drowsiness, and idleness,
are results distinctly traceable to this deadly practice. Pallor
of countenance, nervous and rheumatic affections, loss of memory,
epilepsy, paralysis, and insanity find their principal predisposing
cause in the same shameful waste of life. The want of moral force and
strength of mind often observable in youths and young men is largely
induced by this destructive and deadly sin.

6. Large numbers of youths pass from an exhausted boyhood into the
weakness, intermittent fevers, and consumption, which are said to
carry off so many. If the deaths were attributed primarily to loss
of strength occasioned by self-pollution, it would be much nearer the
truth. It is monstrous to suppose that a boy who comes from healthy
parents should decline and die. Without a shade of doubt the chief
cause of decay and death amongst youths and young men, is to be traced
to this baneful habit.

7. It is a well-known fact that any man who desires to excel and
retain his excellence as an accurate shot, an oarsman, a pedestrian,
a pugilist, a first-class cricketer, bicyclist, student, artist,
or literary man, must abstain from self-pollution and fornication.
Thousands of school boys and