A CHAPTER FOR MARRIED PEOPLE 531 



the world f Those who need reproof on this point may 

 reflect that by a continuance of the evil practice they 

 are placing themselves on a plane even below the un- 

 couth negro who haunts the jungles of Southern Africa. 



We quote the following from the pen of a talented 

 professor in a well-known medical college: 



"I believe we cannot too strenuously insist upon 

 this point,— that sexual intercourse should never be 

 undertaken with any other object than procreation, and 

 never then unless the conditions are favorable to the 

 production of a new being who will be likely to have 

 cause to thankfully bless his parents for the gift of 

 life. If this rule were generally observed, we should 

 have no broken-nosed Tristram Shandys complaining 

 of the carelessness of their fathers in begetting 

 them. ' ' * 



"What May Be Done.— But what is the practical 

 conclusion to be drawn from all the foregoing? What 

 should people do? What may they do? Dr. Gardner 

 offers the following remarks, which partially answer 

 the questions: 



"We have shown that we can 'do right' without 

 prejudice to health by the exercise of continence. Self- 

 restraint, the ruling of the passions, is a virtue, and is 

 within the power of all well-regulated minds. Nor is 

 this necessarily perpetual or absolute. The passions 

 may be restrained within proper limitations. He who 

 indulges in lascivious thoughts may stimulate himself 

 to frenzy; but if his mind were under proper control, 

 he would find other employment for it, and his body, 

 obedient to its potent sway, would not become the mas- 

 ter of the man." 



Wliat are the "proper limitations'* every person 

 must decide for himself in view of the facts which have 



*Dr. Gerrish. 



