PREFACE.
PREFACE.
The Reader will immediately be sensible, that I have been led into the first part of this Treatise upon tracing the Impositions and Inconsistencies of the Author of a Pamphlet EntitledOnania; and for the latter part it may be easily concluded to proceed from no other Motive, but the Dictates of Nature.
It was impossible for an Author of any Spirit, after a particular description of the unnatural use ofthe Parts, that he could finish his Labours without thoroughly examining their admiral Structure: They being no less curious than delightful to a Youthful Swain, that’s fir’d with Imagination.
The infinite number of fine Vessels are pleasing in Representation, as well as otherways Ravishing, and the Nerves and Arteries are equally beautiful, as they are transporting. The great and exquisite sense of the Parts ofGeneration, give an Enjoyment transcending all others; and the Wisdom of our Creator, for the support of the World, cannot be too sufficiently admir’d, in that Man is propagated by an excess of Pleasure.
The following Treatise, I have by no means compos’d to give a loose to Debauchery. I have only persu’d the common Rules of Anatomy in this way of Writing, and interspers’d a great variety of curious Observations and natural Consequences as yet unobserv’d, and I was naturallyinduc’d to it more for the Information of Mankind in general, than for the Sons ofÆsculapiusin particular. The Gentleman of all Ranks not superannuated, may find some Pleasure in perusing it, and the fair Sex will meet with such ample Instructions, as not to fail in the choice of an agreeable Person, for the amorous Combat.
For myDissertationupon theGenerationofMan, I am chiefly oblig’d toMessieurs Lamy, andDionis,[1]those two excellent Anatomists; and if, in some parts of my Performance, I seem more Ludicrous than any Author that has hitherto writ on the Subject; you’ll find on due consideration, ’tis owing to a more exact Enquiry; and Curiosity is not easily satisfied in the depth of the secretsof Nature. And I hope what I have mention’d from a LearnedCasuist,[2]will be a sufficient Antidote against the unlawful use of those curious Parts I have so particularly described; as an Addition to which I farther recommend a small Treatise (not long since publish’d,) Entitled,Essaysrelating to theConduct of Life, which contain sufficient and easy Instructions for a regularOEconomy, not only where the Passions are prevalent, but in all the Vicissitudes incident to Human Nature.
1.Dissertation sur la Generation de L’Homme. ParMonsieur Dionis, Paris 1697.
1.Dissertation sur la Generation de L’Homme. ParMonsieur Dionis, Paris 1697.
2.Traite de l’Impuritie, parMonsieur Ostervald.
2.Traite de l’Impuritie, parMonsieur Ostervald.
In the Writing of this small Work I carelesly omitted a material scrutiny of a Paragraph inOnania; Page 16. says this Author, ‘some Women are with held from being Prostitutes by their covetousnessonly: Others for nothing else, but the fear of Diseases, or the having of Children. Lascivious Widows, who understand the World have reason to scruple second Marriages on many accounts; some love their Liberty; others their Money; and if they value their Reputation, they’ll not dare to venture on unlawful Embraces; whereas in Self-pollution, neither the Cautious, nor the Covetous imagine that they have any thing to fear.” I take it that this very plainly encourages the Sin of Self-pollution, if I may be allow’d to deduce the Consequences of the latter from the former; for he first says rightly, that unlawful Embraces are injurious to Reputations; but then insinuates that Self-pollution may be practis’d without any Apprehensions. This and many other parts of his Treatise, demonstrate his View to be the sale of his Medicines, though with a great deal of Cant he pretends the contrary, besidesthe very tacking of his Apothecary’s-shop, to his stupid Performance, without any farther considerations sufficiently shews his real Intentions. And I am so far from imitating this ignorantEmpirick, that the only Remedy I prescribe, is that InfallibleSpecifick, in every ones power,Chastity.