They would preach, they tell us, a strenuous ideal; they would set up a wholesome dictate of hygiene.

The formula put forward on this basis usually runs: Continence is not only harmless but beneficial.

It is a formula which, in one form or another, has received apparently enthusiastic approval in many quarters, even from distinguished physicians.

We need not be surprised.

A proposition so large and general is not easy to deny, and is still more difficult to reverse; therefore it proves welcome to the people--especially the people occupying public and professional positions--who wish to find the path of least resistance, under pressure of a vigorous section of public opinion.