its mysteries a special study, and succeeded in gaining the great Oriental Secret, which, briefly is this — (and here let me say, that until now this has never been given to the American people, but a red powder has been foisted on them by certain ones, who claim it to be the real secret, but which is an imposition; in other words a compound of starch, carmine, and violet powder, value, three cents, sold at one dollar; besides, the name under which it is sold is a false one, no such secret as the one advertised existing at all) — the true secret, based on natural law, and operating by principles well-known and understood among civilized people, is as follows: —
The Oriental wife, when she is perfectly assured that she cannot safely bear more children, shrinks with unutterable horror from the idea of murdering the fruit of her womb — as all true women ever do; but so times her love season as to avoid the chances; or, if she cannot always do that, merely wills — but strongly — at the time, that a certain event or result shall not occur, and that will- effort contracts the proper muscles of the principal organ involved; effectually closing the door to danger and to risk. It is indeed very seldom that an Eastern woman resorts to that sinless method, and then only when age, disease, or malformations render it imperative. On the contrary, offspring are rightly considered as special blessings from the Supreme God; hence the first lessons a bride receives from her mother are those that favor such a result. She is told to wholly, fully, freely, prayerfully abandon her entire faculties and being to the one grand end of woman-life, — the sacred mission of the wifely mother. Hence it happens that the Oriental wife is always pure: there are not a hundred adulteresses or child-killers in all Islam, with its 200,000,000 votaries! There is not as many of these fearful crimes committed among all the Moslems, in ten years, as disgraces Boston, New York, or Philadelphia every month we live. The Oriental wife, with all her glowing soul, wills — save in very rare instances — to be fruitful, as all women should; and becomes so. There are rare cases in which a wife cannot, without imperilling her life, undergo the ordeal of maternity, and then, and then only, the timely exercise of the will alone forestalls death, prevents crime, and obviates all suffering.
III. Love is magnetic, subject to magnetic law, and is also a force, capable, as all know, of exerting strange effects upon bodies. This
