The Crime of Silence Author:Orison Swett Marden Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III "dangekous Passing" We paint, ourselves, the joy, the fear Of which the coming life is made, And fill our future's atmosphere With sunsh... more »ine or with shade; The tissue of the life to be, We weave with colors all our own; And, in the field of destiny, We reap as we have sown.—J. G. Whittieh. So close does falsehood approach to truth that the wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge. —Cicero. A Police inspector, in an address before New York public school graduates, said: "I have just come from the Tombs, where I closed the gates behind a wealthy murderer. I want to tell you, young men, that ninety-nine per cent. of the crimes committed to-day are caused by evil companions." Familiarity with vulgarity tends to make us vulgar. Familiarity with evil, with immorality, robs it of its hideousness. What we havebecome accustomed to, we first give our consent to, then our approval. Those who associate with vile characters tend to become vile. Investigation has shown that a very large percentage of those who have strayed from the path of virtue began their downfall through the fatal contagion of impurity communicated from vicious associates. One who has made a special study of the effect of immorality upon men says that impure thought suggested by evil associates is one of the earliest indications of the downfall of character. He affirms that ninety-five per cent. of the men and boys in factories and places of manual labor boast of their impurity. This seems an appalling statement, but it is supplemented by that of another investigator who says, "Seventy-five to eighty per cent. of men have, before marriage, been infected with some form of venereal disease." He adds that the truth of this "is widely accepted by medical...« less