We may play with fire. We may be fools, if we will. But
some element of temptation is part of our normal lot in life, and we
need not blush about it. To the average young man it can truly be said,
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man." In
this respect we are all brothers in arms, and I believe the first step
towards victory lies in an honest facing of the fact. Let us admit that
we are tempted and get openly to the business of understanding how
temptation can be conquered.
Let me attempt first of all to clear away certain mischievous delusions
about the subject. It is actually believed in many quarters, and half
believed in many more, that continence is bad for a man. It is only
"natural," men often say, for an adult man to satisfy his desires, and
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.
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