ONAN ESCHEWED - Rick Grunder

that there is more wisdom in one verse in Dr. Watts' hymns for children, than in
all the disgusting speculations which have recently been thrown by the most
shameless wretches before the face of day.
In works of labor or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.*
With this golden precept, as old as creation, you can keep from vice without
asking a popular lecturer to come along and teach you its abominations under
the pretence of securing you from their effects.
* It is a pleasure here to quote the example of the immortal Sir Isaac Newton. Newton
was never married, and never in his life transgressed the laws of purity. When he was
asked, in his last sickness, how he obtained the victory over his passions, he is said to
have replied, "by being immersed in my studies and occupations." It is the true secret.
. . . I suspect that there were other secrets involved, as well. Not an overly rare
pamphlet, yet not held by URMC.
114 WOOD, George P., and E[dward]. H[arris]. RUDDOCK. VITALOGY, OR
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HEALTH AND HOME. ADAPTED FOR HOME AND
FAMILY USE. Beacon Lights for Old and Young, Showing How to Secure Health,
Long Life, Success and Happiness, from the Ablest Authorities in this Country, Europe
and Japan. Geo. P. Wood, M.D., E. H. Ruddock, M.D. Authors of "A Text Book of
Modern Medicine and Surgery;" "Consumption and Disease of the Lungs;" "Essentials
of Diet;" "The Vade Mecum;" "The Ladies' Manual;" "The Pocket Manual;" "The
Stepping Stone;" "Diseases of Infants and Children;" etc. SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION
ONLY. Chicago and New York: Vitalogy Association, 1905 [c. 1904].
Two Volumes. 24 cm. 758, 770 pp. + plates, frontispiece portraits of the authors,
etc. Numerous plates on glossy paper (some colored) and illustrations in the
text. Original three-quarter brown morocco-grained leather over black moroccograined
cloth, gilt-lettered on spines and front boards. Blue marbled endpapers.
IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. The bindings are a bit dull, but they exhibit very little
wear (the spines and their joints & corners are strong and entirely whole). The
text is about fine, even down to two striking, colored folding MULTI-LAYER HEAD
AND BODY DISSECTION DIAGRAMS at the end of Volume I which remain essentially
as new. $250
Evidently quite scarce. OCLC shows a thick one-volume edition first published
1897 or '98, continuing in similar formats through 1904, then followed at last by
the present two-volume edition offered here (1905 but copyrighted 1904),
LOCATING ONLY ONE COPY, at the University of Oklahoma. A 1906 version
returned to one volume (3 locations), then 1907 in two volumes again
119