in scrutiny and question, as the fast young man,—the general lover alluded to. He carefully examined lungs, brain, stomach, breasts, heart, uterus—all; and as he laid down the glass he muttered—and I—with the womb in my hand, and the knife between my teeth echoed, from the floor of my soul, his words—"Murdered, by God! curse him,—them! and me, too, if ever I"—and there he stopped; but not till his oath was registered up there where vows are never broken, and nothing is forgotten. If I could, I certainly would have every male over fifteen witness just such a redemptive and impressive scene; and would take every boy through the wards of a hospital for syphilides. I would have every girl taught the long-forgotten truth that her soul is worth, at least, quite as much as her body; something they little dream of, so ardent is their worship at the shrine of Saint Frivole.
Had I been so instruded long years agone, I had escaped very many subsequent mistakes, and consequent misery; but I. like most others, was a long time in learning thoroughly the tremendous difference between the chaste desire of pure love, and the lurid fires of burning lust. I learned it at last; hence this, and my later books, which I trust will serve as beacons to warn mankind off sunken rocks and reefs long after these hands have returned to primal dust, and the soul that animates them is kneeling at the feet of the Redeeming God.
VII. From the earliest historical ages an unnatural custom has prevailed; and its results have been fearful,—sub rosa mainly, for the victims generally grieve, mourn, and die in silence. I refer to the abominable practice of old men marrying young girls. I know that the temptations,—youth and freshness on one side; influence, society, position, money, on the other,—are great indeed; but for all that, it is a something against which that same society ought to turn; and one that God Himself frowns down; for never a marriage among them all produced other fruits than discontent, jealousy, madness and despair.
Campbell, in that odd book "Hermippus, or the Sage's Triumph," lays it down that the old can regain many months or even years of life by consorting and cohabiting with the young. It is, and is not
