ng to you. I am not appealing to your
religion or your morals. For if you have strong religious or moral
ideas against illicit sexual relations, you are not in need of mine or
anybody else's advice. But I assume that you are a more or less modern
girl, with little or no religious bringing-up, or perhaps a radical
girl, who has shaken off the shackles of religion and tradition. And
to you I say: _Don't you do it_. Why? Because your welfare, your
future happiness, is at stake. I am speaking from the point of view of
your own good, and from that point of view I say: Resist all attempts
which men make exclusively for the purpose of satisfying their sexual
desire, their lust.

You will ask again, why? For several reasons. First, you run the risk
of venereal infection. The danger is not so great now as in former
times, but is great enough. There are still plenty of men dishonest
enough to indulge in sexual relations with a woman when they know they
are not radically cured. The same man who will not get married unless
he is sure that he is perfectly cured will not hesitate to subject a
transient girl or woman to the risk of venereal infection. I know
personally, because I have treated them; yes, I treated several
intelligent and radical young men who infected young girls. And some
of these girls in their turn, through ignorance and innocence,
infected other men. So then, the first danger is the danger of
venereal infection.

The second danger, still greater and more certain than the first, is
the danger of impregnation. And pregnancy for a girl under our present
moral and social-economic conditions is a terrible calamity. She is
ostracized everywhere, and it means, if discovered, her social death.
But you will say: "Aren't there any remedies that can be used to
prevent conception? Aren't you yourself among the world's chief
birth-controllers; one of the world's chief advocates of the use of
contraceptives?" Yes, my dear young lady, but I never made the claim
that the contraceptives were _absolutely_ infallible, I never claimed
that they were _100 per cent._ effective in _100 per cent._ of _all_
cases. But if they are effective 999 times or even 990 times in every
1000 they are a blessing. And thousands of families so consider them.
And if a married woman gets caught once in a while, the misfortune is
not so great. But if the accident happens to a non-married woman, the
misfortune _is_ great. Then again, you want to bear in m