402 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



that he could not imagine it possible that there was 

 any greater suffering in store for him than he already 

 endured. 



We pitied the poor fellow from the bottom of our 

 heart. He had natural qualities which ought to have 

 made him distinguished. He might have risen high in 

 the world of usefulness. Now he was compelled to 

 look back upon a short life of squandered opportu- 

 nities, a pathway stained with vice, memories of vile 

 debaucheries which had wasted his youth and broken 

 his constitution. Wretched was he, indeed. Notwith- 

 standing his vileness, he was not lost to shame; for 

 his greatest fear was that his friends might ascertain 

 the real cause of his sufferings, to conceal which he 

 was obliged to resort to all sorts of subterfuges. As 

 soon as he was able to travel, he left us, with little 

 hope for this world and none for the next; and we 

 have heard nothing of him since. 



Scores of similar cases we might recount in detail, 

 but we have not the space in this volume. These will 

 suffice to give the young reader an idea of the terrible 

 results of this awful vice which are suffered by its 

 victims. We have not dared to portray in these pages 

 one-half the misery and wretchedness which we have 

 seen as the results of self-abuse and the vices to which 

 it leads. The picture is too terrible for young eyes to 

 behold. We most sincerely hope that none of our 

 readers will ever have to suffer as we have seen boys 

 and young men languish in misery as the result of 

 their own transgression of the laws of chastity. We 

 devote the remaining pages of this chapter to the 

 consideration of some of the causes of the vice, the 

 avenues that lead to the awful sin which we are con- 

 sidering, to the terrible consequences which attend it. 



