A Solemn Appeal

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THE PREMATURE DEVELOPMENT OF AMATIVENESS,

Is, however, the great hot-house of sensuality in all its forms. Nature has taken special pains to postpone the development of this instinct until intellect has attained sufficient strength to guide it, the moral sentiments power enough to sanctify and restrain it, and the body sufficient maturity to sustain its drain with impunity. Is not this postponement a most beautiful provision? If it had made its appearance as early as the others, it would have withdrawn those energies from the system required for growth, yet have done no good. As it is, however, nature postpones the matrimonial desires till the subject is prepared to regulate this instinct, and convert it into a means of incalculable enjoyment. At precisely what age it should develop itself, it may be difficult to say, but certainly not till from the eighteenth to the twentieth year; and then it is held in effectual check by native modesty for a considerable time before it acquires sufficient impetus to make love outright; and finally takes years to ripen into a state prepared for marriage - at least for its ultimate rights. SOAP 261.1

“Would to God and humanity that nature were allowed to have her perfect work in this respect. But, alas! our youth are reared in a hot-bed of Amativeness. This impulse is developed several years before its time, and hence, mainly, its perversion. Ye who labor and pray for the banishment of lust, and the moral purity of man, mark well the CAUSE OF CAUSES of man’s carnality in all its forms. It is the ARTIFICIAL STIMULATION, and the PREMATURE DEVELOPMENT of the sexual instinct. Mark the following incentives of premature love, and its morbid, sensual direction, from Fowler on Matrimony: SOAP 262.1

“‘The conduct and conversation of adults before children and youth. How often have SOAP 262.2

I blushed with shame and kindled with indignation at the conversation of parents, and especially of mothers, to their children! “John, go and kiss Harriet, for she is your sweetheart.” Well may shame make him hesitate and hang his head. “Why, John, I did not think you so great a coward. Afraid of the girls, are you? That will never do. Come, go along, and hug and kiss her. There, that’s a man. I guess you will love the girls yet.” SOAP 263.1

“‘Continually is he teased about the girls, and being in love, till he really selects a sweetheart. I will not lift the vail, nor expose the conduct of children among themselves. And all this, because adults have filled their heads with those impurities which surfeit their own. What could more effectually wear off that natural delicacy, that maiden purity and bashfulness, which form the main barrier against the influx of vitiated Amativeness? How often do those whose modesty has been worn smooth, even take pleasure in thus saying and doing things to raise the blush on the cheek of youth and innocence, merely to witness the effect of these improper allusions upon them; little realizing that they are thereby breaking down the barriers of their virtue, and prematurely kindling the fires of animal passion! SOAP 263.2

“‘As puberty approaches, the evil magnifies. SOAP 263.3

The prematurely kindled embers of love now burst forth into the unextinguishable flames of unbridled licentiousness or self-pollution. Most of the conversation of young people is upon love matters, or used in throwing or pretending to parry the shafts of love; and nearly all their plays abound in kissing, mock-marriages, etc., etc. The entire machinery balls and parties, of dances, and the other amusements of young people, tend to excite and inflame this passion. Thinking it a fine thing to get in love, they court and form attachments long before either their mental or physical powers are matured. Of course, these young loves, these green-house exotics, must be broken off, and their miserable subjects left burning up with the fierce fires of a flaming passion, which, if let alone, would have slumbered on for years, till they were prepared for its proper management and exercise. SOAP 264.1

“‘Nor is it merely the conversation of adults, that does all this mischief; their manners also increase it. Young men take the hands of girls from six to sixteen years old, kiss them, press them, and play with them, so as, in a variety of ways, to excite this organ combined, I grant, with friendship and refinement - for all this is genteelly done. They intend no harm, and parents dream of none; and yet their embryo love is awakened, to be again still more easily excited, Maidens, and even married women, often express similar feelings towards lads, not perhaps positively improper in themselves, yet injurious in their ultimate effects. SOAP 264.2