A Solemn Appeal - James White

kissing, mock-marriages, etc., etc. The entire
machinery balls and parties, of dances, and the
other amusements of young people, tend to excite
and inflame this passion. Thinking it a fine thing to
get in love, they court and form attachments long
before either their mental or physical powers are
matured. Of course, these young loves, these
green-house exotics, must be broken off, and their
miserable subjects left burning up with the fierce
fires of a flaming passion, which, if let alone,
would have slumbered on for years, till they were
prepared for its proper management and exercise.
" 'Nor is it merely the conversation of adults,
that does all this mischief; their manners also
increase it. Young men take the hands of girls from
six to sixteen years old, kiss them, press them, and
play with them, so as, in a variety of ways, to
excite this organ combined, I grant, with friendship
and refinement--for all this is genteelly done. They
intend no harm, and parents dream of none; and yet
their embryo love is awakened, to be again still
more easily excited, Maidens, and even married
women, often express similar feelings towards
324