EFFECTS OF LICENTIOUSNESS. 



103 



and ev*n will contempt. &quot; However it may be 

 accounted for,&quot; says Dr. Paley, &quot; the criminal 

 commerce of the sexes corrupts and depraves the 

 mind, and the moral character, more than any 

 single species of vice whatsoever. That ready 

 perception of guilt, that prompt and decisive reso 

 lution against it, which constitutes a virtuous 

 character, is seldom found in persons addicted to 

 these indulgences. They prepare an easy ad 

 mission for every sin that seeks it ; are, in low 

 life, usually the first stage in men s progress to 

 the most desperate villanies ; and, in high life, 

 to that lamented dissoluteness of principle which 

 manifests itself in a profligacy of public conduct, 

 and a contempt of the obligations of religion and 

 of moral probity. Add to this that habits of 

 libertinism incapacitate and indispose the mind 

 for all intellectual, moral, and religious plea 

 sures.&quot;* 



In short, in such a state of society as would 

 inevitably accompany a general violation of the 

 seventh precept of the moral law. all the softness 

 and loveliness of filial piety, of parental affec 

 tion, of brotherly attachment, and of the inter 

 course of kindred, would forever cease ; science 

 and literature would be neglected ; and churches, 

 colleges, schools, and academies would crumble 

 into ruins : a sufficient stimulus would be want 

 ing to the exercise of industry and economy ; a 

 lazy apathy would seize upon the mass of socie 

 ty ; the earth would cease to be cultivated, and 

 would soon be covered with briers and thorns, or 

 changed into the barren wastes of an African 

 desert. The foundation of all regular govern 

 ment would be undermined : for it is chiefly in 

 those habits of submission and obedience which 

 are acquired under the domestic roof, that the 

 foundations are laid of that subordination which 

 is necessary o secure the peace and order of 

 mankind. Society would, consequently, be 

 thrown into a state of disorder, and would speed- 

 iiy sink into oblivion, in the mire of its own 

 pollution. 



The positions now stated could be illustrated, 

 were it expedient, by a variety of melancholy 

 facts, borrowed from the history and the present 

 state, both of savage and of civilized nations. 

 The annals of Turkey, of Persia, of Hindos- 

 tan, uf China, of Japan, of the Society Isles, 

 and even of the civilized nations of Europe 

 and America, would furnish abundance of im 

 pressive facts, to demonstrate the demoralizing, 

 and brutalizing, and miserable effects which 

 would flow from a spirit of universal licentious 

 ness. What revolting scenes would open to 

 view, were we to survey the haunts of licentious 

 ness which abound in Algiers, in Constantinople, 

 in Teheran, in Pekin, in Canton, in Jeddo, and 

 other populous cities, where the restraints of 



Principle-? of Moral and Political Philosophy 

 Book III. Part IIJ. chap 2. 



Christianity are altogether unknown ! In such 

 receptacles of impurity, every moral feeling is 

 blunted, and every moral principle abandoned. 

 Impiety, profanity, falsehood, treachery, perjury, 

 and drunkenness, rear their unblushing ftonts , 

 and thefts, robberies, and murders, follow in their 

 train. The unhappy female who enters these 

 antechambers of hell, is, for the most part, cut 

 off from all hopes of retreat. From that mo 

 ment, the shades of moral darkness begin to close 

 around her; she bids a last adieu tothe smiles 

 of tenderness and sympathy, to the kind embra 

 ces of father and mother, of sisters and brothers, 

 to the house of God, to the instructions of his 

 word, and to the society of the faithful. Instead 

 of the cheering sounds of the Gospel of peace, 

 her ears become accustomed to oaths, and curs 

 es, and horrid imprecations ; the voice of con 

 science is hushed amidst the din of revelry and 

 riot ; every generous feeling is shrunk and with 

 ered ; she stalks abroad like a painted corpse, to 

 fill with horror the virtuous mind, and to allure 

 the unwary to the shades of death ; till at length, 

 wasted with consumption and loathsome disease, 

 she is stretched upon the bed of languishing, 

 abandoned by her former associates, deprived of 

 the least drop of consolation, haunted with the 

 ghastly apparitions of departed joys, and the 

 forebodings of futurity, and sinks, &quot; in the midst 

 of her days,&quot; into the chambers of the grave, 

 without the least hope of a glorious resurrection. 

 And if we consider, that this is a picture of 

 the wretchedness, not only of a few individuals, 

 but of thousands, of tens of thousands, and of 

 millions of human beings, it is impossible to de 

 scribe the accumulated mass of misery which 

 impurity has created, or to form any adequate 

 conception of the horrible and revolting scenes 

 of wretchedness which would be displayed, were 

 the law under consideration to be set aside by all 

 the inhabitants of our globe. 



There is a certa in levity and flippancy of speech 

 in relation to this subject, which prevails among 

 many who wish to be considered as respectable 

 characters, which proceeds from a contracted 

 view of the consequences of human actions. 

 They conceive, that no great harm can be done 

 to society, by a few insulated actions of the kind 

 alluded to, especially if they be concealed from 

 general observation; and that the Creator will 

 be disposed to make every allowance for human 

 frailty. But let such remember that, if it were 

 right to violate this, or any other law of the 

 Creator, in one instance, it would be right in a 

 hundred, in a thousand; in a million, and in eight 

 hundred millions of instances : and then all the 

 revolting scenes now described, and thousands 

 of similar effects, of which we cannot at present 

 form a distinct conception, would inevitably take 

 place. And, therefore, every man who, from 

 levity and thoughtlessness, or from a disregard 

 to the laws of heaven, persists in the occasional 



