“So it should be with moral things.  If a grave obstruction or contradiction befall any one; if he behaves in a way that violates his usefulness, or his own or others’ self-respect; then, if he will not reform himself, we must warn him, or treat him as a physician would:  but to abuse a healthy nature for not considering the reasons of things, not having a moral system, not ‘preparing for death,’ when, by the very constitution of his nature, he does not require one, is a very grave blunder.  Moral anxiety is a sign of moral malaise, or, far more commonly, a sign of physical disorder.

“It is an ascertained fact that those periods when morals have been imposed on man as his sole and proper business and subject for contemplation have been unprogressive, introspective, feeble times.

“No, leave morals out of the question directly, unless you see there is grave cause for interference.  Give one or two plain warnings, or rather commands.

“Try to raise the tone generally; try to make the young soul generous, ardent, aspiring.  If you can do that, the fouler things will fall off like husks.  Above all things, make him devoted to you—­that is generally possible with a little trouble; and let him never see or hear you think or say a low thought, or do a sordid thing.  If he loves you he will imitate you; and while the virtuous habit is forming, he will have the constant thought, ’Would my father have done this?  What would he say, how would he look, if he could see me?’ Imagination is sometimes a saving power.”

I venture to insert a letter in which he touches delicately on the subject of sexual sin.  He would never speak of it, but this was written in answer to a definite question of mine apropos of a common friend of ours.

“I must confess that I do not realize the strength of this particular temptation, but I am willing to allow for its being almost infinitely strong.  I don’t know what has preserved me.  It is the one thing about which I never venture to judge a man in the least, because, from all I hear and see, it must hurry people away in a manner of which those who have not experienced it can not form any conception.

“You ask me what I think the probable effect that yielding to such temptation has on a man’s character.  Of course, some drift into hopeless sensualists.  About those I have my own gospel, though I do not preach it; it is a scarcely formulated hope.  But of those that recover, or are recovered, all depends upon the kind of repentance.  The morbid repentance that sometimes ensues is very disabling.  All dwelling on such falls is very fatal:  all thoughts of what might have been, all reflections about the profaned temple and the desecrated shrine, though they can not be escaped, yet must not be indulged.  I always advise people resolutely to try and forget them in any possible way—­banish them, drown them, beat them down.

“But a manly repentance may temper and brace the character in a way that no other repented fall can.  It is the brooding natures which make me tremble; in healthier natures it is the refiner’s fire which stings and consecrates:  ‘Sanat dum ferit.’