rable
exceptions, the unmarried male who is not well saturated with
spirituality and faith is notoriously gallinaceous in his morals. In
certain classes, he is expected to sow his wild oats before he is out
of his teens; and by this is meant that he will begin young to tear
into shreds the Sixth Commandment so as not to be bothered with it
later in life. If he married he would be safe.

Finally what kind of an existence is it for any human being, with power
to do otherwise, to pass through life a worthless, good-for-nothing
nonentity, living for self, shirking the sacred duties of paternity,
defrauding nature and God and sowing corruption where he might be
laying the foundation of a race that may never die? There is no one to
whom he has done good and no one owes him a tear when his barren
carcass is being given over as food to the worms. He is a rotten link
on the chain of life and the curse of oblivion will vindicate the
claims of his unborn generations. Young man, marry, marry now, and be
something in the world besides an eyesore of unproductiveness and
worthlessness; do something that will make somebody happy besides
yourself; show that you passed, and leave something behind that will
remember you and bless your name.

CHAPTER LXXXIII.
A HELPING HAND.

THE moralist is usually severe, and the quality of his censure is
merciless, when he attempts to treat the unwholesome theme of moral
deformity; and all his efforts are mere attempts, for no human language
can do full justice to such a theme, or fully express the contempt such
excesses deserve. It is just, then, that, when he stands in the
presence of the moral leper who blushes not for his degradation, he
flay with the whip of scorn and contempt, scourge with anathema and
brand him with every stigma of infamy, in order that the load of
opprobrium thus heaped upon his guilty head may at least deter the
clean from such defilement.

But, if guilt is always guilt, the quality of guilt is varied. Just as
all virtue is not equally meritorious, so to other sources than
personal unworthiness may often be traced moral debility that strives
against natural causes, necessary conditions of environment and an
ever-present and ever-active influence for evil. A fall does not always
betoken profound degradation nor a stain, acute perversity of the will.
Those therefore who wrestle manfully with the effects of regretted
lapses or weaknesses, who fight down, sometimes perhap