The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-01-23
Moths in the Candle.

The following article is from the pen of DR..
Holland. published in ScriJner's Magazine:
Every moth learns for itself that the candle
burns. Every night. while the candle lasts, the
slaughter goes on, and leaves it's wingless and
dead around it. The light is beautiful, and
warm, and attractive and, discarded by the
dead, the foolish creatures rush into the flames,
and drop, hopelessly singed, their little lives
despOiled.
Ii has been supposed that men have reason and
4 moral sense. 1t has been supposed that they
observe, draw conclusions, and learn by expert
ence. Indeed they have been in the habit of
looking Town upon the animal world as a group
Of inferior beings, and as subjects of commisera-
ton on account of their defenselessness, yet there
is a large class Of men, reproduced by every
passing generation, that do exactly what the
moths do, and die exactly as the moths die.
They learn nothing by observation or experience.
They draw no conclusions, save those which are
fatal to themselves. Around o certain class of
brilliant temptations they gather, night after
night, and with singed wings of lifeles5 bodies,
they strew the ground around them. No instruc-
tions, no expostulations, no observation of ruin,
no sense of duty, no remonstrances of conscience,
have any effect upon them. If they were moths
in fact they could not be sillier or more obtuse.
They are, indeed, so far under the domination of
their animal natures that they act like animals,
and sacrifice themselves in flames that the world
experience has shown to be fatal.
A single passion, which need not be named
further than to say that, when hallowed by love
and 9 legitimate gift of life to life, it is as pure as
any passion of the souls one of the candles
around which the human moths lie in myriads of
disgusting deaths. If any thing has been proved
by the observation and experience of the world it
is that RIGHTEOUSNESS, and all the Illicit ~gratifca-
ton Of the passions involved in it, are killing sins
against a mans own nature-that by it the wings
are singed not only, but body and soul are de-
graded and spoiled. Out Of all Illicit indulgences
come weakness, a perverted moral nature, iegra-
dation Of character, gross beastliness, benumbed
sensibilities, a disgusting life, and a disgraceful
death.
Before it's baleful fire the s~anctity of woman
hood fades away, the romance of life dies, and
the beautiful world loses all its charm. The lives
wrecked upon the rock of sensuality are strewn
in every direction. Again and again, with end
less repetition, young men yield to the song of
the siren that beguiles them to their death. They
learn nothing, they see nothing, they know moth
ing but their wild desire, and on they go to de-
s~tTuction and the devil.
Every young man who reads this article has
two lives before him. He may choose either.
He nav throw himself away on a few illegitimate
delights, which covers his brow with shame in
the presence Of his mother, and become an old
man before his time, with all the wine drained
out of his life or he may grow up into a pure,
strong manhood, held in healthy relation to all
the joys that pertain to that high estate. He
may be n beast in his heart, or he may have u
Vile WHOM ne hOEeulIS, cOlluren H0OIn ne de-
lights in, a self-respect which enables him to meet
unabashed the nOblest woman, and an undisputed
place in good society. He may have a dirty
imagination. or one that hates and spurns all
impnrity IS both disgusting and poisonous. In
brief, he may be q man, with q mans powers and
immunities, or a sham of a mana white sepql-
chre-conscious that he carries with him his own
dead bones and all uncleanness.
Ii is n matter entirely of choice. He knows
what one life is, and where it ends. lie knows
the essential quality and certain destiny of the
other. The man who says he cannot control
himself not only lies, but places his Maker in
blame. He can control himself, and, if he does
not, he is both a fool and a beast. The sense of
security and purity and selErespect that come of
conscience, entertained for n single day, is worth
more than the illicit pleasures of a world for all
time, The pure in heart see God in everything,
and see Him everywhere, and they are supremely
blest.
Wine and strong drink form another candle in
which millions Of men have singed themselves
and destroyed both body and soul. Here the
signs of danger are more apparent than in the
other forms of sensuality, because there is less
secrecy. The candle burns in open space, where
all men can see it. Law sits behind and sane
tions its burning. Women faunt their gauzes in
it. Clergymen sweep their robes through it.
Responsibility uses il to light its banquet. In
many regions of this country it is a highly res
pectable candle. Yet every year sixty thousand
persons in this country die of intemperance and
when we think of the blasted lives that live in