National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-08-26

the tempter came in the guise which should
have appealed to the manhood in him. In
stead Of arousing the lurking beastiiness Of
his baser nature. Il Is terrible picture to
contemplate, yet It Is only made prominent
either in England or IN America BY Its
peculiar surroundings In both countries
the same thing occurs every day, Each.
successive issue Of the daily press contains
in the announcements Of divorces sought
and obtained, in the description of elope-
msnts and the record of seduction. bastsrdy
and infanticide, the My concealed outlines.
of the stories of victims to the same temp
tation which overpowered Colonel Baker.
This Is startling fact but one that no
man or woman of sufficient intelligence to
understand the meaning of plain English
will deny. And it Is fact that suggests
the existence of immortality as disease, a
disease which grows upon men and wo-
men of all ages and In all stations. Look
about you, and recall the cases of this kind
of which you may have q personal know
ledge. You cannot fail to admit that brutal
instincts assert themselves with equal
power in the actions of the refined as in
those of the ignorant people you know Of
the only difference being in the manner Ia
which the acts are accomplished. In fact,
the imprisoned orator, writer, leader or pub
licist of any kind, as well as the brilliant and
attractive woman seem to be as frequently
the victims OF this fell disease as any other
class, and it has grown to be an accepted
truism that brains, except of the cynical
and acid kind, but brains of that grasping
comprehensiveness, which commands and
attracts love, respect and admiration. are
always more or less accompanied by vigor-
GUS and amatory animal development.
The shrivelled, bloodless, and cold hearted
old maid is Virtuous and only loved by her
selfish comfort seeking feline companions.
The prim, distant and reserved old bach
elor who is bore everywhere, and whose
presence sends the social thermometer
down to zero, is the same. So it is with
the miser. with stingy people Of all kinds,
and with disagreeable enthusiasts, whose
hobbies do not tend in the direction of free
love. But your bold, warm hearted, indie
pendent, lovable and congenial companion
of either sex is, alas. confronted with, to
say the least, a constant presence of physi-
cal inclinstions which may, in an unguarded
moment be developed into bsneful and
destructive passions. This is broad as
sertion, but none too broad, in view of the
many facts that may be evoked to sustain
1t. ..-.
A writer in recent number of the New
York Graphic, has the following to say
regarding this important subject:
II is very easy to condemn lapses of virtue
and unfortunately most of the discussions ths
grow out of great scandal like the Beecher
case end with q fresh condemnation of the
wrong doer, instead of making the wrong doing
the starting point for profitable psychological
investigations. The relations Of the sexes to
each other are 80 delicate and 80 woven in with
. thick ira Gerry of tender and beautiful sssocis
tons that 1t is hard to deal with them In the
cold, scientific way as topics for psychological
examination or metaphysical scrutiny. They
are little understood BY even the profoundest
philosophers Of human nature, and are invested
with mystery which psychology has done lit
tie TO clear away. It is q singular fact that
the men and women who slip on the path Of
virtue are emotional and often religious nj ma
ture. They are not sceptics and disbelievers,
but devotees and enthusiasts. They are not
mathematicians and philosophers, but poets and
preachers and the dreamers Of dreams. There
seems to be real and intimate connection be-
tween the sentiment that adores and prays and
the passion that fires the blood and sends the
thoughts sstray and trips the feet on the path.
II is for the best reason that clergymen are so
often involved in scandals; for the elements Of
body and mind that ct them for professional
success feed directly upon and draw their Vi
tality from emotions which are to the pas
sions what cream Is to milk-whst the sparkle
Is to champagne. 1t is nat because ministers
are bad men, but because they ere SO good In
important respects-because they have an eX-
cess Of sympathy, sentiment, emotion, imagi-
nation, because they have the qualities that at
them for their Office and make elnquence pos
sible-that they sometimes err. Moreover,
they are brought into close relations with peo
pie of the same impulsive and emotional tenn
peraments, and an acquaintance that begins
with prayer ends in license. It is not enough
TO condemn nest-hiding-its pathology should
be understood.
"Another singular feature connected with
this class of crimes is that they are 50 often
committed by people in aud past middle life.
1t is an unquestionable fact that the young are
more virtuous than the old. It was urged as
an argument for the defendant, In the recent
scandal case, that It was improbable thst one
who had borne an unsullied reputation until
past middle life should then stoop TO the vices
of hot-blooded youth. But prominent officials
In our courts state that the number Of respect
able men past maturity who are guilty of
offenses of this kind Is surprisingly great. DR..
johnson said young men have more virtue
than cid men, and for the reason that II their
passions are strong they have strong moral
faculties TO rein them In. A writer in the
Archives Of Elsetrolooy and Neurology for July
attributes this strange delinquency to the de-
cline of the moral faculties in old age, even
when the intellectual faculties are yet active
and brilliant. when the worm Is gnswing at
the roots, the topmost tvigs are the first to
uither. When the brain Is dephosphorized,
moral courage first gives way. On any theory
of the scandal, the want Of moral courage on
the part of the chief actor has been everywhere
conspicuous, and has been freely aud fully
confessed. Timidity and irresolution in those
and strsng are the best of all evidences of .
slow wearing out of the cerebral forces. And
these symptoms may appear long before the
muscles or the intellect exhibit any marked
decline. After thirty five man gets tired Of
being honest, and Q woman of being virtuous,'
says Dean Swift. This is an exaggeration, but
suggests q great pathological fact which bog
raphy confirms Old men go astray becaus
conscience drops its check before the passions
cool, and they are often astonished to find
heir desires running Wild even when they
have too firm hold on their conduct to follow
their headings. An eminent physician recently
testified that men past their prime often con-
fess this fact to their medical advisers.
Intemperance has been pronounced q disease,
and in some cases II has been successfully
treated as such. It Is question how far the
improper relations Of the sexes are the result
Of moral disorder. II Is conspicuously certain
that men and women remarkably for piety
and sympathy and poeticsl fervor are often,
deficient in moral feeling. Somebody has said
that saints viii steal. The most devout pray
ers are often the worst nyers. Some Of tn,
most eloquent men in history have been profit
gates. Demosthenes wanted courage and
Cicero INDUCED in the vices OF his age. Dsyid's
matchless lyrics have embalmed and immor
talized his frsilties. The careers of Goethe
and Napoleon betray no suspicion that either
had Q conscience, and Don Juan gives DEATH
less fame to libertine. Who shall tell how
much Of the license of the world comes out Of
adisordered gangiia, or abnormal calculations,
or deterioration Of tissue, or some unsus-
pected cerebral decay affecting the moral ma
turel Admit the sin and punish II TO the very
utmost; then why not get the science Of the
sin7 Why is It that the characters to whom
ths xworld fs an rnuch fudahted IN art and