Young men of Cheliax, have you ever caught the eye of a beautiful girl?

Young ladies, have you ever stepped out with a rakish fellow?

Have you felt desire stir within you, and fantasized about the happy things that it might lead to?

I warn you now that you stand on the precipice of a most devious and compelling chasm, and must take GREAT CARE not to fall!

Many an embrace has been encouraged under the old regime -- many a kiss -- many a caress -- in the name of harmless fun. "What matters it? It is only touch." Desire grips the soul. 

And when we go further, into more risky territory -- hidden places revealed -- the two figures entwined -- the passions ignite fully: "Who cares what may come of this tomorrow? Let us live only for tonight!"

By the time of the ACT ITSELF: there are no objections left for reason to make; because reason has entirely fled.

All over the country these little transgressions continue. It is the chief entertainment of many a young person, to flirt and seduce and spend their time in each others arms. What fun it brings! What excitement! And who is hurt by a little enjoyment? They think nothing of the future; all that matters is what feels good and right.

What comes next?

Defilement; social crumbling; rampant venereal disease; degradation of the body; abuse; pregnancy; abandonment; death; damnation.

DEFILEMENT sounds laughable -- to those of ASMODEAN character! "But what could have been defiled by our simple act?" PURITY, INNOCENCE, the capacity for PERSONAL CONNECTION, any chances of FAITHFULNESS, and the inherent NOBILITY of the SOUL. If you cannot see what good it is to hold on to these things, get ye as quickly as possible to a church and beg there for intervention.

SOCIAL CRUMBLING, for with false intimacy of this type comes jealousy, fighting, boredom, cruelty, and inevitable falling outs. Many a group of steadfast companions have come to MURDEROUS BLOWS over the matter of a momentary TRYST.

VENEREAL DISEASE, which spreads from sailors and whores and soon envelops a whole city, as fornicators and libertines move FROM ONE to THE NEXT, introducing pains and growths and inflammations from the lowest into the highest rungs of society. Sex is the distorted, mocking reflection of that radical democratic impulse: it knows not rich or poor, not worse or better, but sinks its claws into any who touch it.

BODILY DEGRADATION, as it becomes WORN and SAGGING from excesses, as it gains a most distinctive and unpleasant STENCH, as it BRUISES and BUCKLES under the repeated mishandlings, as it grows ever more DIRTY and UNKEMPT, as its energy drains away and it becomes LISTLESS and PALLID. The word RAVISH should be replaced with the true word for this, which is RAVAGE.

ABUSE both physical and spiritual, as the stronger may do as he pleases, with nothing left to curb his base instincts -- the one is ruined, the other is damned! Each emerges a wretched thing. And you who approached so willingly! Like a lamb to the slaughter! 

PREGNANCY as a matter of due course -- no matter how many arrive at a clever scheme to cheat it. Sickness, fatigue, poor appetite, and finally pain. And what shall be done with the child? Kill it? And most certainly be damned. Abandon it? Another squalid criminal is produced. Raise it up, in this makeshift household established on cheap and loveless pleasure? Spend the next decade listening to it scream, wondering how you and it both will be fed, beating it until both of you hate each other with a passion that outstrips that which led to its woeful creation? These are the choices available to you.

ABANDONMENT, sometimes moments after your first coupling, sometimes after a lifetime of torment and heartbreak, often at the moment you are at your lowest, when you long for touch the most and have become repulsive.

DEATH: at the hands of your lover; in the grips of disease; as a shrieking infant is torn out of you.

And last of all, DAMNATION. For the pleasures you have taken as you will, for the abuses you have rained upon each other, for the jealousies that have pitted you against your fellows, for the diseases you have spread, for the hearts you have broken, for the children you have mistreated, for the lovers you have spurned. And all this for fleeting moments of animal happiness!

Passion is a most fragrant and appealing flower, pleasant to look at and to touch -- but it hides within its petals a thousand poisons. Beware!