“It is a well-known fact that the exercise of the sexual function is an expenditure of vital energy; and, therefore, the person who has the sexual function so adjusted that he exercises it only for the special purpose of reproduction, is the most complete person sexually; while he who exercises it most excessively, or who is most passionately prompted to exercise it most excessively, either in a married state, as you have it here, or under individual freedom, is the most incomplete or licentious person sexually. “You, no doubt, all agree that the higher inferior animals live a comparatively chaste life; while man, here on earth, lives a comparatively unchaste life. Why is this? There must be a cause for it, if you believe in universal causation, and as long as the cause exists the effect will naturally follow. To find and remove the cause, then, must be your whole aim in this field of purification and advancement. The Marsites have long ago removed the causes of unchastity and are therefore living a comparatively pure life. Let us see now whether we can find the causes producing the purity in the inferior animals and the impurity in _your_ human beings, as they now live on earth.” “Show us first, then, why it is that the inferior animal lives a pure life sexually,” said Viola. “I mean, give us your reason for it, Mr. Midith.” “Very well,” continued Mr. Midith. “I have already said that the exercise of the sexual function is an expenditure of vital energy; that proposition you, no doubt, all admit. We have seen elsewhere, too, that as we descend in the scale of animal life, from man downward, they become more and more prolific. “In the lower orders of life, millions must die in order to give room and opportunity for a few to live. The struggle for existence in the orders below man is so fierce that, with their present prolificness, only a few of the fittest can survive. Those individuals, who are most perfect at birth, and who direct their vital energy most economically in harmony with the so-called laws of life, survive; while the weakly born and the licentious ones must perish in the fierce struggle for existence. Hence, the phenomena of evolution forces the inferior animal to live a chaste life, or perish from the effect of expending unnecessary energy.” “But why do not the phenomena of evolution, as you call them, also force man to live a virtuous life?” asked Rev. Dudley.