Moderation should here prevail. Health is thus preserved and strengthened, and the gratification doubled. The art of seasoning pleasures in general, consists in being avaricious with them. To abstain from enjoyment, is the philosophy of the sage, the epicurism of reason. Proper self-denial in the gratification of the wants of physical love is a source of good, not only to the individual practising it, but to the community, as we shall show hereafter. It may be observed for one's own profit only, or for the benefit of another. The latter is in the end more conducive to self-interest than the former. A double advantage is derived therefrom,--gratitude and sympathy returned, and increase of appetite and of power for future enjoyment. Excess of indulgence results in the pain of surfeit and the extinction of affection. Earnest love, satisfying itself with small gratifications, is a more copious source of happiness than that frequently quenched by full gratification. What, then, is this moderation which both Hygeia and Venus command? Here, again, invariable rules are not possible. Science rarely lays down laws so inflexible as those of the Medes and Persians. She designates limits. The passage between Scylla and Charybdis is often a wide one. The folly of the ancient statutes which have been referred to, consists mainly in their failure to recognise the diverse influence of age, temperament, seasons, etc. It almost appears as if there were but one _season_ for generation, that in which the sun re-warms and vivifies the earth, trees dress in verdure, and animals respire the soft breath of spring. Then every living thing reanimates itself. The impulse of reproduction is excited. Now, also, its gratification is most beneficial to the individual and to the species. Children conceived in the spring time have greater vitality, are less apt to die during infancy, than those conceived at any other time of the year. The statistics of many thousand cases, recently carefully collated in England, prove this beyond peradventure. It is well known that a late calf, or one born at the end of the summer, is not likely to become a well-developed and healthy animal. This has been attributed to the chilling influence of approaching winter; but it is capable of another and, perhaps, a truer explanation. Nature's impulses, therefore, in the spring of the year are for the good of the race, and may then be more frequently indulged without prejudice to the individual. Summer is the season which agrees the least with the exercise of the generative functions. The autumn months are the most unfruitful. Then, also, derangements of the economy are readily excited by marital intemperance.