tanical sects that affect an evangelical simplicity, and wish to have a religion without a worship, we hope that they will be passed over in silence. Finally, in those countries where the marriage. of the clergy is allowed, the confession of sin, which is the most admirable of moral institutions, has been, and must necessarily have been, discontinued. It cannot be supposed that the Christian would confide the secrets of his heart to a man who has already made a woman the depositary of his own; and he would, with reason, fear to make a confidant of him who has proved faithless to God, and has repudiated the Creator to espouse the

creature.

We will now answer the objection drawn from the general law of population. It seems to us that one of the first natural laws that required abrogation at the commencement of the Christian era, was that which encouraged population beyond a certain limit. The age of Jesus Christ was not that of Abraham. The latter appeared at a time when innocence prevailed and the earth was but sparsely inhabited. Jesus Christ, on the contrary, came into the midst of a world that was corrupt and thickly settled. Continence, therefore, may be allowed to woman. The second Eve, in curing the evils that had fallen upon the first, has brought down virginity from heaven, to give us an idea of the purity and joy which preceded the primeval pangs of maternity.

The Legislator of the Christian world was born of a virgin, and died a virgin. Did he not wish thereby to teach us, in a political and natural point of view, that the earth had received its complement of inhabitants, and that the ratio of generation,

......

allowed to marry; for, as might have been foreseen, our ecclesiastics since that time have occupied themselves solely with their wives and their children. The dignitaries of the Church could easily provide for their families with the aid of their large revenues; but the inferior clergy, unable with their slender incomes to establish their children in the world, soon spread over the kingdom swarms of mendicants. As a member of the republic of letters, I have often desired the re-enactment of the canons that prohibited marriage among the clergy. To episcopal celibacy we are indebted for all the magnificent grants that distinguish our two universities: but since the period of the Reformation those two seats of learning have had few benefactors among the members of the hierarchy. If the rich donations of Laud and Sheldon have an eternal claim to our gratitude, it must be remembered that these two prelates were never married," &c.--Political and Literary Anecdotes, &c., Edinburgh Review, July, 1819. T.

far from being extended, should be restricted? In support of this opinion, we may remark that states never perish from a want, but from an excess, of population. The barbarians of the North spread devastation over the globe when their forests became overcrowded; and Switzerland has been compelled to transfer a portion of her industrious inhabitants to other countries, as she pours forth her abundant streams to render them productive. Though the number of laborers has been greatly diminished in France, the cultivation of the soil was never more flourishing than at the present time. Alas! we resemble a swarm of insects buzzing around a cup of wormwood into which a few drops of honey have accidentally fallen; we devour each other as soon as our numbers begin to crowd the spot that we occupy! By a still greater misfortune, the more we increase, the more land we require to satisfy our wants; and as this space is always diminishing, while the passions are extending their sway, the most frightful revolutions must, sooner or later, be the consequence.1

Theories, however, have little weight in the presence of facts. Europe is far from being a desert, though the Catholic clergy within her borders have taken the vow of celibacy. Even monasteries are favorable to society, by the good management of the religious, who distribute their commodities at home, and thus afford abundant relief to the poor. Where but in the neighborhood of some rich abbey, did we once behold in France the comfortably dressed husbandman, and laboring people whose joyful countenances betokened their happy condition? Large possessions always produce this effect in the hands of wise and resident proprietors; and such precisely was the character of our monastic domains. But this subject would lead us too far. We shall return to it in treating of the religious orders. We will remark, however, that the clergy have been favorable to the increase of population, by preaching concord and union between man and wife, checking the progress of libertinism, and visiting with the denunciations of the Church the crimes which the people of the. cities directed to the diminution of children.

There can be no doubt that every great nation has need of men who, separated from the rest of mankind, invested with some

1 Note C.

F

august character, and free from the encumbrances of wife, children, and other worldly affairs, may labor effectually for the advancement of knowledge, the improvement of morals, and the relief of human suffering. What wonders have not our priests and religious accomplished in these three respects for the good of society? But place them in charge of a family: would not the learning and charity which they have consecrated to their country be turned to the profit of their relatives? Happy, indeed, if by this change their virtue were not transformed into vice!

Having disposed of the objections which moralists urge against clerical celibacy, we shall endeavor to answer those of the poets; but for this purpose it will be necessary to employ other arguments, to adduce other authorities, and to write in a different style.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED-HOLY ORDERS.

MOST of the sages of antiquity led a life of celibacy; and the Gymnosophists, the Brahmins, and the Druids, held chastity in the highest honor. Even among savage tribes it is invested with a heavenly character; because in all ages and countries there has prevailed but one opinion respecting the excellence of virginity. Among the ancients, priests and priestesses, who were supposed to commune intimately with heaven, were obliged to live as solitaries, and the least violation of their vows was visited with a signal punishment. They offered in sacrifice only the heifer that had never been a mother. The loftiest and most attractive characters in mythology were virgins. Such were

Venus, Urania, and Minerva, goddesses of genius and wisdom, and Friendship, who was represented as a young maiden. Virginity herself was personified as the moon, and paraded her mysterious modesty amid the refreshing atmosphere of night.

Virginity is not less amiable, considered in its various other relations. In the three departments of nature, it is the source of grace and the perfection of beauty. The poets whom we are

Do they

now seeking to convince will readily admit what we say. not themselves introduce everywhere the idea of virginity, as lending a charm to their descriptions and representations? Do they not find it in the forest-scene, in the vernal rose, in the winter's snow? and do they not thus station it at the two extremities of life—on the lips of childhood and the gray locks of aged man? Do they not also blend it with the mysteries of the tomb, telling us of antiquity that consecrated to the manes seedless trees, because death is barren, or because in the next life there is no distinction of sex, and the soul is an immortal virgin? Finally, do they not tell us that the irrational animals which approach the nearest to human intelligence are those devoted to chastity? Do we not seem, in fact, to recognise in the bee-hive the model of those monasteries, where vestals are busily engaged in extracting a celestial honey from the flowers of virtue?

In the fine arts, virginity is again the charm, and the Muses owe to it their perpetual youth. But it displays its excellence chiefly in man. St. Ambrose has composed three treatises on virginity, in which he has scattered with a profuse hand the ornaments of style, his object, as he informs us, being to gain the attention of virgins by the sweetness of his words.1 He terms virginity an exemption from every stain, and shows that the tranquillity which attends it is far superior to the cares of matrimonial life. He addresses the virgin in these words: "The modesty which tinges your cheeks renders you exceedingly beautiful. Retired far from the sight of men, like the rose in some solitary spot, your charms form not the subject of their false surmises. Nevertheless, you are still a competitor for the prize of beauty; not that indeed which falls under the eye, but the beauty of virtue-that beauty which no sickness can disfigure, no age can diminish, and not death itself can take away. God alone is the umpire in this rivalry of virgins, because he loves the beautiful soul, even in a body that is deformed. A virgin is the gift of heaven and the joy of her family. She exercises under the paternal roof the priesthood of chastity; she is a victim daily immolated for her mother at the altar of filial piety.""

De Virgin., lib. ii. ch. 1.

2 Ibid., lib. i. ch. 5.

In man, virginity assumes the character of sublimity. When, in the fierce rebellion of the passions, it resists the invitation to evil, it becomes a celestial virtue. "A chaste heart," says St. Bernard, "is by virtue what an angel is by nature. There is more felicity in the purity of the angel, but there is more courage in that of the man." In the religious, virginity transforms itself into humanity: witness the fathers of the Redemption and the orders of Hospitallers, consecrated to the relief of human misery. The learned man it inspires with the love of study; the hermit with that of contemplation: in all it is a powerful principle, whose beneficial influence is always felt in the labors of the mind, and hence it is the most excellent quality of life, since it imparts fresh vigor to the soul, which is the nobler part of our nature.

But if chastity is necessary in any state, it is chiefly so in the service of the divinity. "God," as Plato observes, "is the true standard of things, and we should make every effort to resemble him." He who ministers at his altar is more strictly obliged to this than others. "The question here," says St. Chrysostom, "is not the government of an empire or the command of an army, but the performance of functions that require an angelic virtue. The soul of the priest should be purer than the rays of the sun." "The Christian minister," adds St. Jerome, "is the interpreter between God and man." The priest, therefore, must be a divine personage. An air of holiness and mystery should surround him. Retired within the sacred gloom of the temple, let him be heard without being perceived by those without. Let his voice, solemn, grave, and religious, announce the prophetic word or chant the hymn of peace in the holy recesses of the tabernacle. Let his visits among men be transient; and if he appear amid the bustle of the world, let it be only to render a service to the unhappy."

It is on these conditions that the priest will enjoy the respect and confidence of his people. But he will soon forfeit both if he be seen in the halls of the rich, if he be encumbered with a wife, if he be too familiar in society, if he betray faults which are condemned in the world, or if he lead those around him to suspect for a moment that he is a man like other men.

Chastity in old age is something superhuman. Priam, ancient as mount Ida and hoary as the oak of Gargarus, surrounded in his palace by his fifty sons, presents a noble type of paternity;