416 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



compelled to do so, is in a fair way to become addicted 

 to all sorts of iniquities. Probably tliere is not one 

 in a hundred among boys of this class who does not 

 become addicted to some form of vice. Religion is the 

 best of all safeguards against these debasing vices, as 

 well as all other forms of sin, and no young man can 

 afford to begin his career in life without the aid to be 

 afforded by genuine religion; and of all helps which 

 can be obtained, religious influences, through the Sab- 

 bath-school, church, etc., are the greatest. 



The growing disregard for religion among young 

 men is one of the most characteristic features of the 

 time, and this tendency accounts in part for the almost 

 universal prevalence of sexual vices among young men 

 of the present day. 



Wrong Ideas about "Women.— From what the 

 author has learned through conversation with hundreds 

 of young men who have been under his professional 

 care, he is convinced that most of them entertain a 

 very incorrect idea respecting young women. While 

 there are undoubtedly many exceptions, it is certainly 

 true that among the better class of refined and culti- 

 vated ladies, the sexual passions are comparatively 

 dormant. The young man who allows his sexual pas- 

 sions to predominate his thoughts and to a large extent 

 his conduct, is wholly in error in thinking the average 

 woman is a creature after his own sort. 



The author has met several instances in which he 

 had every reason to believe that young women who had 

 been led from the path of virtue had not been actuated 

 by the desire for sexual gratification, but were led 

 astray through a desire to please those who had won 

 their affections. 



There are, of course, plenty of young women whose 



