. To
give sensible and intelligible directions on a subject as delicate as it
is important in medical practice, it will be necessary to enter into
some scientific details.

The passion which prompts to sexual intercourse is altogether natural in
itself, and, as such, intended by the Creator to be indulged in at the
right time and in the proper manner. It is the stimulus which He has
provided for the propagation of the human race. If the stimulus is
strong at times, this too is a special effect of His wisdom; because
without a powerful prompting of this kind, most men would shirk the
burden of married life, just as very many would not care to toil if they
had no hunger and thirst and other bodily wants to satisfy.

But though all these cravings are useful and even indispensable to
mankind, all of them need the regulation of reason. When they are
indulged immoderately or in unnatural ways, they become most copious
sources of bodily diseases, of mental disorders, and moral degradation.
Every one knows how the passion of drink, when abused, proves the
ruination of millions; excessive eating, too, injures the systems of
countless people. But no animal passion is more liable to become
disorderly, none needs more firm control and habitual watchfulness, than
the passion of lust. Reason dictates that it should be indulged for no
other purpose than that for which the Creator has made it, namely,
marital intercourse. I say _marital_ and not merely sexual intercourse;
for outside of married life all nations have always condemned its
indulgence.

Besides, it is only in the married state that the children, which are
the fruit of such intercourse, can be properly educated. To generate a
race of young barbarians is certainly not the purpose of the sexual
relations. Children must not be begotten unless they can be properly
raised, in a manner worthy of their noble destiny. Now, it is only in
the married state, in the family or domestic society, that they can be
thus educated. They need the tender hand of a mother to supply their
material wants; they need the manly care of a devoted father to provide
the necessaries of life, his firm hand to break their wanton wills, and
his wise direction to set them well on the road to temporal and eternal
happiness. Therefore, no one has the right to beget or to bear children
except in marital life. Now, the sexual passion is to be exercised only
in connection with its proper object, the procreatio