Draught, as likewife fome of the delectable Balfam ready prepar'd. I earnestly with for a freedy Anfwer, (which may be left at Mr. Crouch's in order to be fent with the Medicines) and beg your acceptance, Sir, of this fmall Fee, € (my Circumftances not permitting me to prefent a greater). I hope your Goodness will excufe the tedioufnefs of this Letter, and that it will find you as willing as you are able (through the Bieffing of God) to relieve Yours to Command. PRAY give me your Opinion of Cold Baths, I fhall be ready to follow any Directions. OROKOROKOROKOROKO To the worthy Author of the Book called ONANIA. Worthy SIR, Monday, July 29. 1723*Happening to read your excellent Book of Onania, which I heartily with I had been fo happy as to have perufed nine Years ago, would prevented that fhameful Practice and deteftable Sin, I have for fo long been guilty of; being ignorant of the heinoufness of the Crime, and the ill Confequence that now attends it,and hopes through God's Mercy, and your Affiftance, to find Relief in this unhappy Circumftance. Sir, my Cafe is as follows: When I make Water, as foon as I have done I feel a great pain in my Belly, I generally have a pain all over my 6 Privy * Privy Parts, and am afraid the violence I have ufed has ftrain'd the Veins, they look fo red; f have wandering Pains all over me, but especially the fmall of my Back, and infides of my Thighs, befides a pain in my Head, and fuch fleepinefs, and dulnefs, that I am hardly fit for any Buf nefs. I eat my Meat very well, and can Work, Sleep, &c. bleffed be God for it, but drinks very little, because I think it increases my Pain. I do declare I never had carnal Knowledge of < any Woman, but unfortunately learn d this dif mal Sin of my Bedfellow when I was 12 Years old, and God knows us'd it feveral times a Day for a long time, and then made Refolutions to leave it off, but in a little time fell to the fre quent ufe of it again, for which I humbly im. plore the Divine Mercy for my, poor Soul and Body. Sir, I hope you will be pleafed to confi der my deplorable Condition, and if you pleafe to leave any thing for me at the Bookfeller's, I will get a Friend to call for it on Tuesday next, near Six a-Clock in the Afternoon, and he fhall bring Money along with him; but muft make bold to let you know I am a working Man, and at present in mean Circumstances, therefore de fires your Charitable Confideration, and likewife the favourable Conftruction of thefe imperfect Lines, which bears no refemblance with your excellent and ingenious Book. Sir, I beg of you to excufe this Liberty, and fhall evermore continue, SIR, Your very humble One 109 ONE of my Stones is at prefent exceeding pain ful and I think is fwell'd. A Gentleman, who was recommended to me by a former Patient of mine, for an imbecillity of the Genitals, and violent Pain in his Back, Teficles, and Groins, I adminiflred the proper Medicines to, and cur'd him in no long time, upon which he wrote me the following Letter. SIR, THIS is to let you know that by Heaven's Grace, and your Care, I am now out of the Labyrinth I have for fo long time been in volved into ; and do not doubt but I fhall by the continuance of both be made a perfect and found Man both in Mind and Body, for when the latter is well, the former is calm and fedate: This is a Favour for which I fhall for ever earnestly thank Heaven, and pray that all Bleffings may C attend you on Earth, and an eternal Crown of Glory in the World to come; this is the wifh of him that fhall wait on you at Eleven this Morning, and is with all his Heart, SIR, To the Author of ONANIA. "LA ATELY feeing your Onania, and knowing my felf guilty of the Sin declaim'd again in it, although God knows I never thought it a Sin before I read your Book, which have now made me very fenfible it is, and I heartily ask God's Pardon for committing fo great a Crime: and believing I have injured my felf by fuch abominable Practice, defire you would be pleas'd to appoint me a Place and Time where and when I fhall wait upon you, to advife with you about my Cafe, which I fear is bad enough: 1 beg your Appointment may be within a Day or twe, I being obliged to go out of Town on the latter Part of this Week for fome Time; I fha thankfully give you a handfome Fee, and in complying with my Requeft you will oblige your • unknowing P. S. PRAY be pleafed to leave your Anfwer at Mr. Crouch's, and I fhall fend for it to-Morrow in the Afternoon. SIR, Nov.. 7, 1721. "I Have read your Book with much Pleasure and Satisfaction, though not without the greateft Concern for the Unhappiness of Mankind, many of whom are ignorant of the Sin, and I believe the greateft Part of the fatal Confequences that attend the Thing you treat of; a Thing Deteftable in the Sight of God, Deftru&tive of Themfelves, and Ruinous of all Pofterity. ་ с As to the Ift, Never any Crime was punifh'd in a more exemplary Manner, the first that is Recorded to have been guilty of it being ftruck dead upon the Spot, and though no doubt there were fome particular aggravating Circumftances in his Cafe, yet, abftracted from thefe, there is fufficient to let us know the Almighty's abhorence of the Fact itself, and therefore the extream Danger of ever committing it. As to the 2d, The many Inftances you have given, and the Thoufands more that might be produced, too plainly demonftrate the Truth of it. And as for the 3d, This neceffarily follows from the foregoing, for if we deftroy our own Being, at a time when we are capable of, and fhould be giving it to others; or, which is all one, if we incapacitate ourfelves for the continuing one. C Species, there is moft certainly the ruin of Poferity, and a Period put to the future existence of Mankind. Now what can there be of ·a, C more monftrous nature? in what view foever we confider it, whether from Scripture, Experience,' C L2 for |