es not distinguish
between souls, and sex makes no difference with Him. In this His
judgment differs from that of the world which absolves the man and
condemns the woman. There is no evident reason why the violation of a
divine precept should be less criminal in one human creature than in
another. And if the reprobation of society does not follow both
equally, the wrath of God does, and He will render unto every one
according to his and her works.

CHAPTER LXXVII.
THE SINK OF INIQUITY.

THE malice of lust consists in the abuse of a natural, a quasi-divine
faculty, which is prostituted to ignoble purposes foreign to the ends
by the Creator established. The lines along which this faculty may be
legitimately exercised, are laid down by natural and divine laws,
destined to preserve God's rights, to maintain order in society and to
protect man against himself. The laws result in the foundation of a
state, called matrimony, within which the exercise of this human
prerogative, delegated to man by the Creator, receives the sanction of
divine authority, and becomes invested with a sacred character, as
sacred as its abuse is abominable and odious.

To disregard and ignore this condition of things and to seek
satisfaction for one's passions outside the domain of lawful wedlock,
is to revolt against this order of creative wisdom and to violate the
letter of the law. But the intrinsic malice of the evil appears in the
nature of this violation. This abuse touches life; not life in its
being, but in its source, in the principle that makes all vitality
possible, which is still more serious. Immorality is therefore a moral
poisoning of the wells of life. It profanes and desecrates a faculty
and prerogative so sacred that it is likened to the almighty power of
the Creator.

A manifold malice may attach to a single act in violation of the law of
moral purity. The burden of a vow in either party incurring guilt,
whether that vow be matrimonial or religious, is a circumstance that
adds injustice or sacrilege to the crime, according to the nature of
that vow; and the double guilt is on both parties. If the vow exists in
one and the other delinquent, then the offense is still further
multiplied and the guilt aggravated. Blood-relationship adds a specific
malice of its own, slight or grievous according to the intimacy of said
relationship. Fornication, adultery, sacrilege and incest--these, to
give to things their proper names, are t