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means of compulsory celibacy, by isolating them from the world 

 at large or by physiological annihilation,* which will render pos- 

 terity safe from such contamination. The pure crystal streams 

 of life should not be alio/'ed to be polluted by the streams that 

 flow into them, otherwise the waters of both will become con- 

 taminated. The ideal of a perfect physical nature is perfect 

 health ; the ideal of a perfect mental nature is a normal brain ; the 

 ideal of a perfect moral nature is a perfect conscience, and the 

 ideal of a perfect being is the blending of these three into one 

 symmetrical whole. A sound mind in a sound body should be the 

 desire of all, and if we have lived in accordance with the natural 

 laws ot our constitution, the termination of our lives will have a 

 peaceful and happy ending, when, the intellect unimpaired and the 

 other senses uninjured, the same nature which put together the 

 several parts of the machine, takes her own created work to pieces. 

 In many cases the weary pilgrimage of life is brought to a close 

 with little apparent derangement of mental powers ; the final scene 

 may be short and painless, and the phenomena of dying almost 

 imperceptible. 



In such an ending the stock of nerve power is exhausted — the 

 marvellous and unseen essence, that hidden mystery that man 

 with Hil his wonderful powers of reasoning, that physiology with 

 ali the aid that science has lent it, and the genius of six thousand 

 yea has failed to fathom. In that hour is solved that secret, the 

 mysi> y of which is only revealed when the book of life is t-iosed 

 forever. Then we may hope, when nature draws the '^eil over the 

 eye that is glazing on this world, at the same moment she is 

 opening to some unseen but spiritual eye a vista, the confines of 

 which are only wrapped by the everlasting and immeasurable 

 bounds of eternity. 



Pope expresses this view of death most pathetically, when he 

 says : 



" Vital spark of heavenly flame ! 



Quit, oh quit this mortal frame ! 



Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying, 



Oh the pain, the bliss of dying ! 

 Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife. 

 And let me languish into life I 



" Hark ! they whisper; angels say 



Sister spirit, come away ! 



What is this absorbs me quite ? 



Steals my senses, shuts my sight, 

 Drowns my spirits, draws my breath ? 

 Tell me, my soul, can this be death ?" 



* .Sexiial perverts should not be allowed to procreate, and if the merciful act of 

 asexualization was performed on all habitual Lriininals, it would not only relieve our 

 tjaols of more than half of the inmates but would make them industrious and useful 

 citizens. 



