The extreme action is evil, fifth, because it begets moral weakness; it hinders the true development of Wisdom. The victim believes in nothing which is truly high and divine. His or her aspirations are terrestrial and sensual. The mind of Man, though constitutionally exalted in glory and destiny above the stars that glitter on fair heaven's brow, yet brings its attractions into fellowship with terrestrial currents; and looks to corporeal pleasure for all its blessings. Such a spectacle reminds one of seeing angels, with line, hook, and bait, angling for celestial nutrition in a mill-pond-looking downward, and not up, for love and heaven. The extreme action is evil, sixth, because it produces coarseness of mind and clumsiness of manners. Among married extremists, it causes much alienation or disaffection. Any sexual excess, whether under legal sanction or not, is always productive of practical indifference. In early marriages, there is a world brimful of misery: arising from this unsuspected, but potent cause; it so powerfully militates against purity of affection. The extreme action of the conjugal principle is evil, seventh, because it communicates the most atrocious injuries and vices to Posterity. I appeal now both to your Knowledge and your Wisdom. The penitentiary, the dungeon, gallows, and lunatic asylum, are means employed by the world to punish—who and what? The victims and evils of an inconsiderate generation! I know that the structure of society develops, by other deformities, many foes to its interest. But I tell you truly: that poorhouses, prisons, penitentiaries, asylums for the insane, and deaf, and dumb, and blind, are but so many necessary receptacles for children, conceived in sin and born in iniquity. We complain of vulgar extremists; but who made them what they are? Let polite married extremists answer! Let us hear no more about the curse of God! Away with all imaginative explanations of human suffering! Bring forward the true causes and philosophy of evil! When asked, by your Sunday school Teacher, the question: "Who made you?"— In all sincerity, you answer, "God." But did God make drunkards, and liars, and thieves, and robbers, and mur-. derers? Far from it. These unfortunate foes to the interests of society, were made, not by God, but by the misuse of the conjugal principle by Extremists! Thousands of children are born with evils; for which the parents were never so much as once suspected. Where are earth's greatest criminals? Do you behold them in prisons? in dungeons? in lunatic asylums? on the scaffold? Do you behold them in houses of Pollution? in gambling houses? in the cells of Newgate? No! These places and their inhabitants ARE EFFECTS! Where are Where are "the Causes"? Where are they who gave existence to these morally and physically deformed creatures? Mark the fact: you will find them free, in the wide world-unfettered, suspected of no crime. -rich, titled, honored; in legislative halls, in palaces; as judges, priests, and kings-persons by whom the law of love, under legal sanction, is degraded to sensualistic purposes! Children of the lower mould-revengeful, cruel, sensual, inharmonious, unhappy-are the offspring of Extremists. tremists, whether married or unmarried, produce the same evils and communicate the same injuries to posterity. Hence, they deserve the exposition which we now make; and should listen to the touching appeals of Humanity. Ex LECTURE VI. THE CHARACTERISTICS AND VICES OF INVERSIONISTS. IT is deemed essential, to a profitable appreciation of our melancholy theme, that the foundations of all mentality are understood to be laid in the Principle of Love. In the language of common use, this word "Love" is thoughtlessly applied to freaks and fantasies of the brain-a fleeting sensation, nestling temporarily, in young and inexperienced hearts a feverish passion, which leads to miserable marriages often, and expires finally on the cross of trial and disappointment. But from all which has been said, methinks, the reader conceives this word entitled to a deeper, broader, higher significance. In the Harmonial Philosophy, the term "Love" is the divine word for LIFE-that Principle of Universal Vitality, which "lives through all life, extends through all extent"—the foundational element of the human soul. We, therefore, elevate the term from the cesspools of common use to the dignity and divinity of a Principle. Our theme concerns all people. The young of both sexes, and those no longer young, are equally interested, because equally involved. But no person can intelligently and profitably grasp it, unless the true source and basis of life are first comprehended. What is it that plants the germ of human life? It is the Law of Love. This law may be operative only on the physical plane at the time, it may be low or high in its manifestations extreme or inverted-nevertheless the parental-cause of the human germ is the law of love; and this law, therefore, is the foundation and ruling element of its subsequent develop ments. I will not now stop to describe the exact correspondence between the growth of the individual, and the degree or condition of the Law of Love in the progenitors, when the foundation of his immortal existence was laid. It should here be plainly stated, however, in the hearing of parents and of those likely to become so, that the individual can never act contrary to the conditions, which, like so many master-masons and constructive-carpenters, are engaged in the formation of his material temple. The elements of character and disposition are given to the child, and subsequent growth and culture can modify only, but not irradicate them. The fundamental lesson necessary to learn concerning our existence, is, that our entire being is predicated upon the Law of Love. What causes the cohesion of atoms in the blood? It is the attraction of love in these atoms. What causes the gravitation of fine particles of matter from one part of the body to another? Why can we eat food, drink water, breathe air, and feel refreshed thereby? Because these elements "find their acquaintance" in the constitution. What is the cause of this "acquaintance" between food, water, air, and ourselves? Chemists say "affinity." But what is the cause of affinity. There is but one reply-the cause of all these phenomena is LOVE. Love in the blood, love in the muscles, love in the nerves, love in the heart, love in the brain: love in the constitution of everything! There is but one explanation. Love, in an extreme state, is the cause of excitements, fevers, inflammations, both in body and disposition; whilst, in an inverted state, love is the cause of depression, coldness, and cruelty. This is true, because there is but one power enlivening bone and muscle, This homocentric power is tissue and nerve, heart and head. the Alpha and Omega of all life. Having established an idea of the dependence of body and soul upon the Love-principle-that through the power and action of this law all parts of our organisms are elaborated-I will now pass on to a direct consideration of our sad subject. The characteristics of inversionists, when described to you, will disrobe their vices and point each one to the straight and happy way of personal repentance. Inversionists are shielded now by the clouds of ignorance. Parents and teachers, having but little or no knowledge of the laws of nature, are unable to detect the victims of inversionism. The The young become permanently misdirected in conjugal love, become daily transgressors of the most important law of life; but Ignorance throws his nocturnal cloak around and shields them even from the eye of suspicion. It is time now to rend the garments of old Ignorance, and expose his victims to the gaze of Humanity, who ever implores man to cease to do evil and learn to do well. Each must be his brother's keeper. If my young brother or young sister disturbs the law of life, no one can tell where, or on what shore of this infinite universe, such a disturbance will terminate. Behold yon noble ship! out upon the wafting gale. ners of hope. Each part is full of strength and majesty. Glorious spectacle ! She rides the ocean like "a thing of life." How truly does it image forth the beauty and prospective grandeur of manhood, as based on the promises and aspirations of youth! Like mighty wings, the sails spread Anon, the storm-king summons his armies to terrific battle. His well-known artillery rends the skies. The troubled elements, in their uncontrollable frenzy, let fall their thunderbolts upon that ship-and, lo! her constitution is shaken and im |