to examine and cure. But the priest of
Rome is bound, by the most ridiculous and impious oath of celibacy, to
remain ignorant of the very things which are the daily objects of his
inquiries, observations, and thoughts! The priest of Rome has sworn never
to taste of the fruits with which he feeds, his imagination, his memory,
his heart, and his soul day and night! The physician is honest in the
performance of his duties; but the priest of Rome becomes in fact a
perjured man every time he enters the confessional-box.

Thirdly, If a lady has a little sore on her small finger, and is obliged to
go to the physician, for a remedy, she has only to show her little finger,
allow the plaister or ointment to be applied, and all is finished. The
physician _never_--no, never--says to that lady, "It is my duty to suspect
that you have many other parts of your body which are sick; I am bound in
conscience, under pain of death, to examine you from head to foot, in order
to save your precious life from those _secret_ diseases, which may kill you
if they are not cured just now. Several of those diseases are of such a
nature that you never dared perhaps to examine them with the attention they
deserve, and you are hardly conscious of them. I know, madam, that this is
a very painful and delicate thing for both you and me, that I should be
forced to make that thorough examination of your person, but there is no
help; I am in duty bound to do it. But you have nothing to fear. I am a
holy man, who has made a vow of celibacy. We are alone; neither your
husband nor your father will ever know the secret infirmities I will find
in you; they will never even suspect the perfect investigation I will make,
and they will, for ever, be ignorant of the remedy I will apply."

Has any physician ever been authorized to speak or act in this way with any
of his female patients? No; never! never!

But this is just the way the spiritual physician, with whom the devil
enslaves and corrupts women, acts. When the fair, honest, and timid
spiritual patient has come to her confessor, to show him the little sore
she has on the small finger of her soul, the confessor _is bound_ in
conscience to suspect that she has other sores,--secret, shameful sores!
Yes, he is bound, nine times in ten; and he is _always allowed_ to suppose
that she does not dare to reveal them! Then he is advised by the Church to
induce her to let him search every corner of the heart, and of the so