It is well known that the early ancestors of our vigorous German race guarded the chastity of their youth until the age of twenty-five, as the true method of increasing their strength, enlarging their stature, and enabling them to become the progenitors of a vigorous race. The opportunity of wide observation enjoyed by the headmasters of public schools, and all engaged in education, lends great weight to their testimony. The master of over 800 boys and young men states: ‘The result of my personal observation, extending over a great many years, is, that hard exercise in the open air is, in most cases, an efficient remedy against vicious propensities. A large number of our young men thus make a law unto themselves, and pass the period of their youth in temperance and purity till they have realized a position that enables them to marry.’ Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, has given similar testimony.[36] In primitive Christian communities, and many country and village populations uncorrupted by the stimulants of luxury, we observe the advantage of chastity to the health of youth. In these simple, healthy societies the strong public sentiment of the village, combined with outdoor life, preserves the honesty of the young men until the time of early marriage. The result is the growth of a vigorous, healthy race. Our recognition of the possibility, as well as advantage, of chastity to the young is further strengthened by a knowledge of the healthy self-control exercised by men in the prime of life. After the age of thirty, the unnatural life of celibacy is a difficult exercise of mind and body, far more difficult than it is to uncorrupted youth. The intimate experience, however, of every observant man and woman can recall constant instances of the honourable fidelity of husbands to their marriage vow during the protracted illness of their wives; and the majority of our countrymen would consider it an insult to suppose that when a new-born child is laid in their arms, and the wife leans for support during her period of weakness upon her husband’s love, that he betrays her love and trust during those solemn epochs of family life. To private knowledge is added the weight of solemn public testimony from men of ardent temperament who have reached the full vigour of life in the practice of entire chastity. Every one who listened to the weighty words of Père Hyacinthe, spoken in St. James’s Hall before a crowded audience a few years ago, received the proof of the co-existence of vigorous health with stainless virtue. Similar testimony, called forth by the false teaching and dangerous tendencies of the present time, has been given by many others, proving the principle that the human sexual passion when uncorrupted, does not enslave the man; that the possibility of perfect health and perfect virtue is the natural endowment of every human being.