The Conservation of Vitality. 



the inclinations of an effete society. His state- 

 ment is true. Our only hope of regaining a 

 state of perfect health, perfect happiness, is by 

 being chaste. Chastity is the conservation of 

 that vital force which gives pleasure to life, and 

 without which life is but a continuation of 

 misery, disease, and suffering. 



To be chaste is one of the most simple things 

 in the world, until nature is once violated, when 

 it becomes one of the most difficult, both men- 

 tally and physically. " La continence absolue 

 est meme relativement facile a ceux qui ne Font 

 jamais enfreinte, car pour Tappareil genital, 

 comme pour tous les autres appareils organiques, 

 moins il est sollicite, moins il est imperieux." 



Absence of this virtue has been the principal 

 cause of the failure of civilisation, as it has been 

 the cause of ruin of all great Empires Egyptian, 

 Persian, Greek, and Roman. The decline of the 

 Roman Empire leaves little room for doubt as to 

 its cause. The virtues of the Romans, "soon 

 disappeared amid the immorality and decomposi- 

 tion that mark the closing years of the Republic 

 and the dawn of the Empire. The stern simpli- 

 city of life which the censors had so zealously 



enforced, was exchanged for a 



luxury, which first appeared after the return of 

 the Army of Manlius from Asia, increased to im- 

 mense proportions after the almost simultaneous 

 conquests of Carthage, Corinth, and Macedonia, 

 received an additional stimulus from the ex- 

 ample of Anthony, and at last, under the Empire, 

 rose to excesses which the wildest Oriental 

 orgies have never surpassed." (" History of 

 110 



