The primary object of marriage was, undoubtedly, the preservation of the race, though there are other objects which, under special circumstances, may… - John Harvey Kellogg

It is a painful fact, however, that the total annihilation of every foul book which the law can reach will not effect the cure of this evil, for our modern literature is full of the same virus. It is necessarily presented in less grossly revolting forms, half concealed by beautiful imagery, or embellished by wit; but yet, there it is, and no law can reach it. The works of our standard authors in literature abound in lubricity. Popular novels have doubtless done more to arouse a prurient curiosity in the young, and to excite and foster passion and immorality, than even the obscene literature for the suppression of which such active measures have recently taken. The more exquisitely painted the scenes of vice, the more dangerously enticing. Novel-reading has led thousands to lives of dissoluteness.

Idleness.-This evil is usually combined with the preceding. To maintain purity, the mind must be occupied. If left without occupation, the vacuity is quickly filled with unchaste thoughts. Nothing can be worse for a child than to be reared in idleness. His morals will be certain to suffer. Incessant mental occupation’ is the only safeguard against unchastity. Those worthless fops who spend their lives in “killing time” by lounging into bar-rooms, loafing on street corners, or strutting up an down the boulevard, are anything but chaste. Those equally worthless young women who waste their lives on sofas or in easychairs, occupied only with some silly novel or idling away life’s precious hours in reverie-such creatures are seldom the models of purity one would wish to think them If born with a natural propensity toward sin, such a life would soon engender a diseased, impure imagination, I nothing worse.

An Unwelcome Child.-But suppose the mother does not succeed in her attempts against the life of her child, as she may not ; what fearful results may follow! Who can doubt that the murderous intent of the mother will be stamped indelibly upon the character of the unwelcome child, giving it a natural propensity for the commission of murderous deeds? Then again-sickening thought-suppose that attempts to destroy the child are unsuccessful, resulting only in horrid mutilation of its tender form ; when such a child is born, what terrible evidences may it bear in its crippled and misshaped body of the cruel outrage perpetrated upon it!