if he does not he suffers in health. It is a point on which we must let
the doctors speak, even although plenty of individual men could testify
from experience that the idea is nonsense. And what do the doctors say!
Sir Dyce Ductworth, Sir James Paget, Sir Andrew Clark, Sir Clifford
Allbutt, and scores of others have all expressed themselves with the
clearest emphasis. Sir James Paget, for instance, says, "Chastity or
purity of life does no harm to mind or body. Its discipline is
excellent. Marriage can safely be waited for." Further, in the noble
little book on "Sex" by Thomson and Geddes, I find this sentence:
"Féré, a leading authority on sex pathology and hygiene, denies
categorically that a man is ever hurt by continence, and affirms that
he is always the stronger." What probably is true is that if a man
lives in thought an impure life, and submits himself to exciting
suggestions and imaginations, the secretions of his body will be
increased, so that he may become subject to very severe strain. And
that, if continued, may work nervous damage. But this only means that a
continent life requires thought and proper direction. There _need be_
no evil effects from continence. We must be quite clear about
this point, for so long as we toy in mind with the suggestion that
there is any natural necessity for incontinence, we are fatally
weakened for our struggle. It is a man's glory to be master of himself,
and to maintain his virginity through the years before marriage. And he
may quite well achieve it, if he will but go the right way about it. No
doubt the struggle is much harder for some than for others. No doubt
there are reasons in plenty for charity to those who fail. But there is
no real reason why any man should not hope and expect to succeed, and a
right expectation is the very foundation of success.

Then, secondly, a man would do well to realize one simple physiological
truth about his body. That body naturally and regularly secretes semen.