O F P U B E R T Y. 425 



an eafy virtue. I have known fome men who, 

 at the age of twenty-five or thirty^ enjoyed good 

 health, without having ever felt this paflion fo 

 ftrong as to render any gratification neceffary. 



Continency, however, is lefs to be dreaded 

 than excefs. The number of immoderate men 

 is too great to require particular examples. By 

 excefs, fome have loft their memory ; fome have 

 been deprived of fight ; fome have become bald ; 

 and many have perifhed by pure debility. Young 

 perfons can never be fufficiently warned of the 

 irreparable injury to their health, which the' in- 

 dulgence of the venereal appetite never fails to 

 produce. How many ceafe to be men, or, at 

 leaft, ceafe to enjoy the powers of manhood, 

 before the age of thirty? and how many, at 

 fifteen or eighteen, receive the feeds of a difeafe, 

 difgraceful in itfelf, and which it is often impof- 

 fible to eradicate ? 



It has already been remarked, that, at the age 

 of puberty, the growth ufually ftops. It fre- 

 quently happens, however, that, even after pu- 

 berty, a tedious illncfs makes the body increafe 

 in length more than it would have done in a 

 Hate of perfedl health. I'his extraordinary in- 

 creafe is probably occafioncd by the inactivity 

 of the external organs of generation during the 

 courfc of the difeafe. The organic pai tides do 

 not reach thefc parts, bccaufc they are not de- 

 termined thither by irritation ; and this defect 

 of irritation is owing to a lafFitude and imbecil- 



lity 



