200 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



condiments, and the excessive use of flesh food, pastry, 

 and highly seasoned viands, is one of the most active 

 causes of impurity in modern times. The early Ro- 

 mans, who fed upon the simple fruits of the earth, were 

 as chaste in morals as abstemious in diet; but under 

 the degrading influence of a luxurious and stimulating 

 dietary, the Roman emperors developed a degree of 

 moral turpitude that astonished and disgusted even the 

 heathen world in which they lived. The great mon- 

 archies which once ruled the world became immoral 

 and corrupt only when their citizens became wealthy, 

 and adopted luxurious modes of life. Simplicity in 

 diet, dress, and in all the habits of life is most con- 

 ducive to virtue. 



The same principle applies in relation to sexual 

 gratification as to the gratification of the sense of taste. 

 The sexual function is double in its purposes; first, 

 the sexual organs are always active, even when not 

 excited to such a degree as to obtrude their activity 

 upon the consciousness, as they supply the body with 

 a needed vital stimulus and regulator; secondly, they 

 furnish the only means by which the physical life of 

 the individual and the perpetuation of the race may 

 be accomplished. In neither of these important func- 

 tions is the personal gratification of the individual the 

 primary consideration. The exercise of the sexual 

 function with a purely selfish purpose would seem to 

 be as much a debasement of the sacred function in 

 which man approaches most nearly to the creative 

 power of which he is the image, as is eating for the 

 mere gratification of the palate a debasement and pros- 

 titution of the appetite and the sense of taste. 



Evil association is often the avenue through which 

 the father of lies and iniquity leads his victims down 



