The same author further remarks, that "virginity is something so delicate and so fragile, that the least injury which it may receive is capable of tarnishing its éclat and the lustre which accompanies it." "It is extremely important," continues he, “for Christian virgins, who wish to make sure the grace of their divine vocation and render themselves worthy of the love and caresses of their Lord Jesus Christ, in the character of his spouses, that they fortify themselves outside of the world against the world, and that they place themselves out of the reach of all the criminal temptations which may possibly come from abroad."

Saint Ambrose says, that "the virgins, by the observance of their vows, attain to the general resurrection by enjoying in advance, in this world, the glorious advantages which even the elect enjoy only after the day of universal judgment."

Saint Francis de Sales has also lauded the state of celibacy (see epistle to an Abbess, No 50).

Such is the doctrine of the Catholic Church to-day; and it rests wholly upon the system of Oriental dualism which has been embodied in her theology. She places celibacy higher than marriage, and yet permits no divorce, the inconsistency of which will be seen at once. Why insist so tenaciously upon the observance of an institution of such subordinate value? There are two passages of Scripture which would seem to justify her position; viz., Matt. xxii. 30, where Christ declares that in heaven they "neither marry nor are given in marriage;” and also 1 Cor. vii. 7, where the apostle Paul expresses the wish that all men might be as he was, that is, single. We reply to any argument which may be based upon the first text as follows: There may be things eminently proper and necessary in this world which would be decidedly out of place and unnecessary in the next one. Among these may be reckoned the propagation of our species, without which Christianity itself must soon cease to exist. With

regard to the second text we remark,-1st, Saint Paul was in the minority among the apostles in this respect. 2dly, He had no idea of extolling celibacy, in itself, above marriage, but only preferred it for his followers on account of the troubled state of the times, the persecution to which they were subject, and the supposed proximity of the second coming of Christ. His view of the sanctity of marriage in itself, may be inferred from the fact that he has compared it to the relation which exists between Christ and his church.

This is one of the most pernicious doctrines of the Catholic church, but is a legitimate consequence of the character which she assigns to virtue; viz., freedom from every thing which pertains to the body, as the work of Satan. God has given us our passions for a good purpose. Virtue is active: it is the result of a temptation overcome, or the reward of the moderate exercise of our powers. The monk finds it much easier to bolt the door upon his passions, than he does to regulate

and control them. Virtue is a state of the heart; and the purest souls in heaven, those close around the throne of God, are mothers. Swedenborg said, that, although the virgins he saw in heaven were beautiful, the wives were incomparably more beautiful, and went on increasing in beauty evermore.

"So celibacy is the highest state?' And why? 'Because it is the safest and the easiest road to heaven.' A pretty reason! I should have thought that was a sign of a lower state, and not a higher. Noble spirits show their nobleness by daring the most difficult paths. And even if marriage were but one weed-field of temptation, as these miserable pedants say, who have never tried it or misused it to their own shame, it would be a greater deed to conquer its temptations than to fly from them in cowardly longings after ease and safety."1 "It is as unreasonable," says Dr. Johnson, "for a man to go into a Carthusian convent for fear of being immoral, 1 Charles Kingsley.

as for a man to cut off his hands for fear he should steal." 1

Poverty. In India, the Fakirs go stark naked. In Paris, the Lazarists borrow the clothing which they wear. Money is the means which we employ to satisfy our material wants. By thrusting it contemptuously from us, we cast a reproach upon the values which it represents. Hence voluntary poverty was one of the first expressions of the monastic spirit. It has always been regarded as the sign of a special and extraordinary sanctity. "Freedom from every lien which binds us to the body" was the watchword of the monk; and he found it much easier to renounce wealth altogether, than to employ it judiciously and generously. The most that can be said against this practice is, that it does violence to nature. God seems to have planted in every human breast the desire to provide for the future. Competency is a duty only the morally lazy can desire pov

1 Boswell's Life of Johnson.