hat, his higher powers suffer and become weakened, and he becomes
more like an inferior animal; if he persists in this downward course,
his lower powers become strengthened until finally they transcend and
rule the higher. Then, to all intents and purposes, such a man's head is
downwards and the lower part of his body is upwards just where his head
ought to be.

Man is a human being, yet, like the whole animal kingdom, he has
appetites, desires and passions, as it is absolutely necessary that he
should have. He has organs corresponding to these appetites, desires and
passions, and it is necessary that he should have them. A proper
understanding in regard to this matter will convince anyone of the truth
of this assertion. Our Creator doeth all things wisely and well, in the
most perfect manner possible. Consequently, man with all his organs,
parts and passions is just what he should be when he blossoms into
youth, in the perfection of his adolescence as described above. In fact
there could be no other form of creating man, for the Lord always
creates in the most perfect way possible, according to one harmonious
law which He has ordained to govern the creation of all beings.

Such a man is fully prepared to struggle with himself and the world at
large. In his desires, appetites or passions of any kind, he, in his
humanity, protected by his rational faculties and enlightened by the
Divine Oracle of God, unquestionably has the power to choose between
propriety and impropriety, between the right and the wrong, between the
good and the bad. Take any evil into which a member of the human family
may fall--the love of ardent spirit for instance; he first thinks of it
and desires to partake of some. Finally he takes an opportunity to
gratify his desire, does satisfy it for the time and thinks it very
nice. The next craving is a little more intense, and he cannot overcome
the temptation quite so easily as he could have done before, and at last
he indulges again. So he goes on, step by step, until he may fall very
low. _The same thinking, feeling and desiring precedes the adoption of
every vicious habit that was ever formed._ Nor will anyone pretend to
say that a persistent effort of the will power, at the very outset, when
he first perceived the tendencies of his desires to do what he need not
do, would not have prevented the evil; no argumentation will prevail in
the face of stubborn facts, and the real facts are all on the side