The speech, the purport of which has already been announced, consists mainly in adducing a large number of prudential considerations. In every way it will be to a boy's good—to his material advantage, his security, his good repute, and even his moral improvement—to yield not to a lover, that is to one who feels genuine passion for him, but to one who is moved by physical desire and nothing else. The lover's passion is a malady, precluding him from all self-restraint, and no permanent satisfaction can be expected from him. Moreover, there is a far wider field of choice from amongst non-lovers, though it is of course not all such that should be favoured.

You know how I am situated, and I have told you that I think it to our advantage that this should happen. Now I claim that I should not be refused what I ask simply because I am not your, lover. Lovers, when their craving is at an end, repent of such benefits as they have conferred: but for the other sort no occasion arises for regretting what has passed; for being free agents under no constraint, they regulate their services by the scale of their means, with an eye to their own personal interest.