UNCHASTITY 215 



points unmistakably to the conclusion that there must 

 be something in the refinements and perversions of 

 civilized life which is unfavorable to chastity, not with- 

 standing all the restraints which religion and the con- 

 ventionalisms of society impose. Can we find such in- 

 fluences?— Yes; they abound on every hand, and leave 

 their blight in most unwelcome places, oft unsuspected, 

 even, till the work of ruin is complete. 



Libidinous Blood.— In no other direction are the 

 effects of heredity to be more distinctly traced than in 

 the transmission of sensual propensities. The children 

 of libertines are likely to be rakes and prostitutes. 

 History affords numerous examples in illustration of 

 this fact. The daughter of Augustus was as unchaste 

 as her father, and her daughter was as immoral as 

 herself. The sons of David showed evident traces of 

 their father's weakness. Witness the incest of Amnon, 

 and the voluptuousness of Solomon, who had seven 

 hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Solo- 

 mon's son was likewise a noted polygamist, of whom 

 the record says, *'He desired many wives." His son's 

 son manifested the same propensity in taking as many 

 wives as the debilitated state of his kingdom enabled 

 him to support. But perhaps we may be allowed to 

 trace the origin of this libidinous propensity stiir 

 farther back. A glance at the genealogy of David will 

 show that he was descended from Judah through 

 Pharez, who was the child of an incestuous union be- 

 tween Judah and his daughter-in-law. 



Is it unreasonable to suppose that the abnormal 

 passion which led David to commit the most heinous 

 sin of his life in his adultery with Bath-sheba, and 

 subsequently procuring the death of her husband, was 

 really a hereditary propensity which had come down 



