Chase The Kangaroo

“Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

The Tempered Flame

Chastity is often misunderstood as a narrow or prudish restriction, but Franklin meant something far broader and stronger. To him, chastity was the disciplined governance of desire — the capacity to master one’s passions rather than be mastered by them. Desire itself is not the enemy, uncontrolled desire is.

Every person carries appetites capable of building life or consuming it. When comfort becomes a craving, it slowly undermines strength. When control becomes a refuge, it quietly turns into fear. Throughout Scripture, in Stoic teaching, and in the strenuous creed of men like Theodore Roosevelt, comfort is never treated as a virtue. It is the adversary of strength.

Chastity, rightly understood, is the tempering of that inner fire. It is not denial; it is direction. It is desire placed under authority, so that a man’s energy becomes constructive, not corrosive.

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.”
~ Lao Tzu

Historical & Philosophical Context

Franklin’s view of chastity was forged in the intellectual climate of the Enlightenment, yet deeply rooted in ancient moral philosophy. The classical world saw indulgence not merely as moral fault but as a weakening of the will. Aristotle described sophrosyne, temperance, as the virtue that placed desire under the guidance of reason. The Stoics taught enkrateia, the strength of self-command that freed a person from the tyranny of impulse.

Franklin absorbed those ideas and translated them into practical English. His concern was not repression but proportion. Excess dulled the mind, weakened resolve, and injured reputation. Desire, if indulged without purpose, stole vitality from every other virtue.

He understood that even seemingly harmless indulgences, the small compromises, the casual excesses eroded the structure of self-command long before they became destructive.

To Franklin, chastity was not a denial of passion but a stewardship of strength. It preserved clarity, vigor, and peace.

“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
~ Epictetus

Franklin’s Intent

Franklin’s definition of chastity is surprisingly practical:

“Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.”

He was not warning against desire itself, but against what happens when desire becomes indulgence. Indulgence blunts the edge of discipline. It leads a person toward what they do not need, at the cost of clarity, purpose, or trust. A healthy desire has boundaries; indulgence refuses them.

Under Franklin’s lens, chastity becomes a form of self-respect, a refusal to let one’s own pleasure undermine one’s strength, integrity, or peace. It is a virtue that protects the self from erosion and protects others from injury.

A man soon learns that unchecked indulgence, even in small things, often leads him somewhere harmful, while healthy desire remains tethered to purpose. The difference between the two is not the intensity of the appetite but the discipline of the will.

Franklin understood this intimately. He had seen men undone not by catastrophe but by appetite. It was appetite that weakened them one harmless choice at a time.

“Pleasure in moderation preserves the spirit; in excess, it consumes it.”
~ Benjamin Franklin (paraphrased)

Stoic and Christian Parallels

Both the Stoic and Christian traditions saw chastity as a cornerstone of moral strength. Neither viewed restraint as repression; both saw it as freedom.

The Stoics believed that desire must be governed by reason. Marcus Aurelius warned that pleasure, when it escapes discipline, enslaves the mind. Epictetus taught that the man who cannot govern his own appetites is unfit to govern anything else.

Christian teaching approached the same truth from another angle — not by exalting reason alone but by ordering desire under reverence. Paul spoke of the body as a vessel of honor and called believers to flee desires that fracture integrity.

Both traditions recognized the same danger: the gradual erosion of self-command. Even small indulgences — a boundary ignored, a restraint discarded — break trust, disrupt inner order, and weaken resolve long before sin or scandal appear.

Chastity becomes the virtue that restores alignment. Respect for others begins in private, where a person refuses to reduce anyone to an object of imagination or use. Purity of heart flows into purity of action.

“The body is a good servant, but a poor master.”
~ Attributed to Augustine

Modern Relevance

Modern culture treats indulgence as identity. It urges people to satisfy every impulse, equating feeling with authenticity and restraint with repression. Pleasure becomes a product, and appetite becomes a brand.

Everywhere, excess is marketed as empowerment. Food is no longer nourishment but entertainment. Women are told their sexuality is their power, even as the same culture exploits them relentlessly. Men drown quietly in shame, numbed by digital illusions that promise connection while eroding the capacity for it.

And our youth are caught in the crossfire, as they are pressured to define themselves by desire, identity, or confusion they were never meant to carry alone.

Chastity confronts all of this with clarity. It declares that desire is not identity, indulgence is not empowerment, and confusion is not destiny. It calls for strength, not surrender.

Careless thoughts and fantasies pull a person away from the present — away from responsibility, relationship, and real life. But disciplined thought anchors the mind, directing energy toward growth rather than escape.

Chastity becomes a countercultural resolve:
to reject objectification,
to guard attention,
to honor the dignity of every person,
and to steward desire toward what builds, not what consumes.

“Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but the power to do what we ought.”
~ Lord Acton

Examples in Practice

Chastity is lived not in dramatic moments but in the steady, quiet discipline of everyday choices. It’s choosing purpose over impulse. It’s honoring boundaries, spoken or unspoken. It’s resisting the drift toward comfort that dulls ambition and weakens resolve.

It shows up when a person refuses to let appetite break trust; when they recognize how even a small indulgence can fracture commitment and compromise integrity.

It shows up in the mind, long before it shows up in the body, when a man refuses to let imagination wander into places where dignity is lost. Respect is preserved long before any action takes place.

Chastity is also deeply creative. Energy redirected toward creation strengthens a person; energy spent on consumption slowly empties them. Many discover that when desire is disciplined, creativity awakens — writing, building, restoring, repairing, and contributing take the place of drifting and indulging.

Finally, chastity produces peace. When private life aligns with public integrity, nothing has to be hidden, managed, or explained away. Time once wasted on covering tracks becomes time spent building something worthwhile. A clear conscience becomes a form of quiet strength.

Key Aspects of Chastity

• Self-Mastery: The disciplined governance of desire.
• Purity of Intention: Desire aligned with purpose, not impulse.
• Reverence: Honoring the dignity of self and others.
• Integrity: Unity between private life and public character.
• Strength Under Restraint: Energy directed, not discharged.

Developing the Virtue

Chastity grows through habits of discipline, awareness, and reverence.
Guard the imagination — desire unattended becomes desire untethered.
Set boundaries — internal or shared — and honor them consistently.
Redirect energy toward creation and service.
Keep close to practices that strengthen the inner man: prayer, silence, labor, and community.
A chaste life is not a restricted life; it is a focused one.

“Rule your mind, or it will rule you.”
~ Horace

Practical Focus Map

Area	Practice
Attention	Guard thoughts; redirect fantasy toward present duty.
Desire	Evaluate where each desire leads before acting.
Relationships	Honor dignity; never reduce another to an object of use.
Boundaries	Keep agreements – spoken or unspoken – that preserve trust.
Energy	Channel strength toward building, not consuming.
Integrity	Align private choices with public character.
Spiritual Life	Pursue purity of heart through prayer, Scripture, and reverence.

Closing Thought

Chastity is not the virtue of denial; it is the virtue of dominion. It is strength held in reserve, desire ruled by purpose, and energy directed toward what is worthy.

Franklin understood that a man’s character is revealed not only by what he does, but by what he refuses to do. Chastity protects the soul from dullness, the will from weakness, and relationships from harm.

The world speaks often of freedom, but chastity teaches the deeper truth:
A person is most free when nothing within them must be hidden.

Thirteen Weeks, Thirteen Virtues