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Words of Wisdom From
Dio Lewis
Excerpts
from "Chastity or Our Secret Sins"
1875
| "All
eminent physiologists who have written on this point agree that the most
precious atoms of the blood enter into the composition of semen.
A healthy man may occasionally discharge his seed with impunity,
but if he chooses--with reference to great physical strength and
endurance, as in the pedestrian, boat-racer, prize-fighter or explorer, or
with reference to great intellectual and moral work, as in the apostle
Paul, Sir Isaac Newton, and a thousand other instances--to refrain
entirely from sexual pleasure, nature well knows what to do with those
precious atoms. She finds use
for them all in building up a keener brain and more vital and enduring
nerves and muscles." P. 25 |
| "Where
one person is injured by sexual commerce, many are made feverish and
nervous by harboring lewd thoughts. Rioting
in visions of nude women may exhaust one as much as an excess in actual
intercourse. There are
multitudes who would never spend the night with an abandoned female, but
who rarely meet a young girl that their imaginations are not busy with her
person. This species of
indulgence is well-nigh universal; and as it is the source of all the
other forms--the fountain from which the external vices spring, the
nursery of masturbation and excessive coitus--I am surprised to find how
little has been said about it." P. 26 |
| "The
ancient Germans did not marry until the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth
year, previous to which they observed the most rigid chastity, and in
consequence they acquired a size and strength that excited the
astonishment of Europe" P. 52 |
| "The use
of the reproductive organs for mere sensual gratification has undoubtedly
been the besetting sin in all ages…The degradation into which this sin
has plunged mankind is thus vividly described by Isaiah:
'The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they
have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances and broken the
everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the Earth, and they that
dwell therein are desolate.' The "everlasting covenant"
mentioned was that one made with Adam concerning the use of the
reproductive organism." P.112 |
| "To
desire a woman for sexual pleasure, as we have learned from the Old
Testament, is lust; and it is a woman--any woman, even one's wife. So then
Jesus taught that whatever man should look upon any woman, even his wife,
to lust after her, was an adulterer in his heart, and in using her for his
own pleasure had committed the actual sin." P. 113 |
| "A
little curtain which may be drawn aside at pleasure will serve to protect
you from each other's observation when bathing and dressing.
Two narrow beds, separated by the curtain, will make conversation
easy as though you occupied the same couch.
With perfect continence for three months, with a constant study of
your wife's convenience and happiness, the old joy will gradually come
back again, and you will find, my friend, that married love is the fullest
and richest source of happiness in the world." |
| "An
intelligent gentleman wrung his hands and wished he'd never been born,
when I convinced him that the small heads, dull faces, irritable nerves,
bad teeth and breath and general poor health of his three boys came of his
two hundred indulgences each year of his married life" |
| "If bad
thoughts proceed from erotic temperament or from a spermatic plethora, the
best means will be those derived from physical and moral hygiene, the
practice of temperance, of an exact sobriety, of manual labor, sometimes
hunting, which in certain cases has produced the best and most surprising
effects." PP. 262 |
| "humanity
has fallen into a state of habitual lust, which some physicians and the
world in general falsely call 'normal appetite' and 'natural propensity,'
whose indulgence causes a terrific but constant increase in the number of
diseased and vicious creatures doomed to misery by the sins of their
parents before they were born." P. 317 |
| "Men need
all their vital force not required in fatherhood for the performance of
labors, material, mental, and moral, whereunto they are called
as sons of the Most High; and by wasting their strength in
enervating debauchery they forfeit health, happiness and the most glorious
possibilities of manhood." P. 318 |
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