UNCHASTITY 241 



THe numeroTis scandal and divorce suits which ex- 

 pose the infidelity of husbands and wives, are sufficient 

 evidence that illicit commerce is not confined to the 

 unmarried ; but so many are the facilities for covering 

 and preventing the results of sins of this description 

 that it is impossible to form any just estimate of their 

 frequency. The incontinence of husbands and the un- 

 chastity of wives will only appear in their enormity 

 at that awful day when every one shall ''stand before 

 the judgment seat," and receive the penalty of his 

 guilty deeds. 



Unchastity in Ancient Times,— We would fain 

 believe the present to be the most licentious age the 

 world has ever known; that in the nineteenth century 

 the climax of evil has been reached ; that the libidinous 

 blood of all ages has culminated to produce a race of 

 men more carnal than all their predecessors. It is a 

 sickening thought that any previous epoch could have 

 been more vile than this; but history presents facts 

 which disclose in ancient times periods when lust was 

 even more uncontrolled than now; when vice was uni- 

 versal; and when virtue was a thing unknown. 



From the Sacred Record, we may judge that before 

 the flood a state of corruption prevailed which was 

 even greater and more general than any that has ever 

 since been reached; only eight persons were fit to sur- 

 vive the calamity which swept into eternity that lust- 

 ful generation with their filthy deeds. 



But men soon fell into vice again; for we find 

 among the early Assyrians a total disregard of chas- 

 tity. Their kings reveled in the grossest sensuality. 



No excess of vice could surpass the licentiousness 

 of the Ptolemies, who made of Alexandria a bagnio, 

 and all Egypt a hotbed of vice. Herodotus relates that 



