THE CURSE OF CELIBACY

The usages of certain so-called religious faiths have doubtless been instituted from good motives. . Experience, however, has shown many of them to be morally objectionable. The celibacy of the olden times was based on the expressions in which St. Paul recommends the unmarried, rather than the married, state, as more favorable to a devout life, But to make that which suits exceptional persons into a law binding on the average person must always incur the risk of abuse. History shows that moral evil from this cause has been very widespread. After an examination of the works of the Ascetic writers; the nature of the evidence being “unfit for publication” – the general results of close inquiries may be stated as follows:
(1) That the Monastic vow and the life of celibacy failed to secure the professed object of the institutions in all but a very few instances, and that it did not promote that purity of the heart which was acknowledged to be its only good end.
(2) That, besides the evil of cutting men from the common enjoyments, duties and sympathies of life, the work of maintaining and defending their chastity absorbed almost the whole energies of those who sincerely labored at it, so that to be chaste in fact and in heart was pretty nearly the sum of what the many could do, even with the aid of starvation, excessive bodily toils, and depletic medicine, to say nothing of his prayers, tears and flagellations.
(3) That the Monastic Institutions, even during their earlier era, entailed the most deplorable miseries and generated the foulest and most abominable practices, so that for every veritable Saint which the Monastery cherished it made two wretches whose moral condition was in the last degree pitiable or loathsome. Many men, both old and young, who have ceased their baneful habits, and are not even troubled by involuntary evacuations, are puzzled as to their continued condition of debility. They are still very nervous and really unfit to successfully compete with their fellow men or carry on their business with any degree of success, suffering, as they do, at times from despondent moods and a deficiency of confidence.
They have thought they were entirely free from the effects of their past habits, but, while they may have discontinued the practice, there is nevertheless a condition present which is almost if not equally as bad as the one they have just been congratulating themselves as having escaped.
This is due to a continuous escaping of the seed in the urine, while passing the same. Of course it must be understood that this is just as disastrous to the health and depletes the nerve force and energy equally as much, if not more, than night emissions.
The following explanation will serve to show just why and how this is so.
Connected with the urethra are the ducts referred to above, and from these highly sensitive glands the seed, or vital fluid, is forced into the urethra during normal coition. In a man who is healthy and strong physically and sexually, these ducts are strong enough to retain the seed until the moment of transmission; but when they have been robbed of their former firmness and strength by excesses, they can no longer secrete and retain the vital fluid, especially during the straining at stool, or when there is any venereal excitement present. These delicate ducts, which nature intended as the storehouses of the male seed, are highly susceptible (owing to their relaxed and weakened condition) to dilation by the urine passing over them, and it is while thus dilated that the seed escapes and is wasted in the urine. Again, owing to the urethra and bladder being inflamed and irritated by past abuses, the urine is voided quite frequently, thereby causing a continuous drain and waste.