for so doing may not
always be left with them.

The obligation to marry, to increase and multiply, was given to mankind
in general, and applies to man as a whole, and not to the individual;
that is, in the common and ordinary run of human things. But the
circumstances with which we are dealing are outside the normal, sphere;
they are extraordinary, that is say, they do not exist in accordance
with the plan and order established by God; they constitute a disorder
resulting from unlawful indulgence and wild impiety. It may therefore
be, and it frequently is the case, that the general obligation to marry
particularize itself and fall with its full weight on the individual,
this one or that one, according to the circumstances of his life. Then
it is that the voice of God's authority reaches the ear of the unit and
says to him in no uncertain accents: thou shalt marry. And behind that
decree of God stands divine justice to vindicate the divine right.

We do not deny but that, absolutely speaking, recourse to this remedy
may not be imperiously demanded; but we do claim that the absolute has
nothing whatever to do with the question which is one of relative
facts. What a supposed man may do in this or that given circumstance
does not in the least alter the position of another real, live man who
will not do this or that thing in a given circumstance; he will not,
because, morally speaking, he cannot; and he cannot, simply because
through excesses he has forgotten how. And of other reasons to justify
non-compliance with the law, there can be none; it is here a. question
of saving one's soul; inconveniences and difficulties and obstacles
have no meaning in such a contingency.

And, mind you, the effects of profligate celibacy are farther-reaching
than many of us would suppose at first blush. The culprit bears the
odium of it in his soul. But what about the state of those--or rather
of her, whoever she may be, known or unknown--whom he, in the order of
Providence, is destined to save from the precariousness of single life?
If it is his duty to take a wife, whose salvation as well as his own,
perhaps depends on the fulfilment of that duty, and if he shirks his
duty, shall he not be held responsible for the results in her as well
as in himself, since he could, and she could not, ward off the evil?

It has come to such a pass nowadays that celibacy, as a general thing,
is a misnomer for profligacy. Making all due allowance for hono