VIRGINITY IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT.
We have seen, in the fifteenth chapter, with what jealousy Catholicity
endeavors to veil the secrets of modesty; with what perseverance she
imposes the restraint of morality on the most impetuous passion of
the human heart. She shows us all the importance which belongs to
the contrary virtue, by crowning with peerless splendor the total
abstinence from sensual pleasure, viz. virginity. Frivolous minds,
and principally those who are inspired by a voluptuous heart, do not
understand how much Catholicity has thus contributed to the elevation
of woman; but such will not be the case with reflecting men who are
capable of seeing that all that tends to raise to the highest degree
of delicacy the feeling of modesty, all that fortifies morality, all
that contributes to make a considerable number of women models of the
most heroic virtue, equally tends to place women above the atmosphere
of gross passion. Woman then ceases to be presented to the eyes of man
as the mere instrument of pleasure; none of the attractions with which
nature has endowed her are lost or diminished, and she has no longer to
dread becoming an object of contempt and disgust, after having been the
unhappy victim of profligacy.
The Catholic Church is profoundly acquainted with these truths; and
while she watched over the sanctity of the conjugal tie, while she
created in the bosom of the family this admirable dignity of the
matron, she covered with a mysterious veil the countenance of the
Christian virgin, and she carefully guarded the spouses of the Lord in
the seclusion of the sanctuary. It was reserved for Luther, the gross
profaner of Catharine de Boré, to act in defiance of the profound
and delicate wisdom of the Church on this point. After the apostate
monk had violated the sacred seal set by religion on the nuptial bed,
his was the unchaste hand to tear away the sacred veil of virgins
consecrated to God: it was worthy of his hard heart to excite the
cupidity of princes, to induce them to seize upon the possessions
of these defenceless virgins, and expel them from their abodes. See
him everywhere excite the flame of sensuality, and break through all
control. What will become of virgins devoted to the sanctuary? Like
timid doves, will they not fall into the snares of the libertine? Is
this the way to increase the respect paid to the female sex? Is this
the way to increase the feeling of modesty and to advance humanity?
Was this the way in which Luther gave a generous impulse to future
generations, perfected the human mind, and gave vigor and splendor to
refinement and civilization? What man with a tender and sensitive heart
can endure the shameless declamation of Luther, especially if he has
read the Cyprians, the Ambroses, the Jeromes, and the other shining
lights of the Catholic Church, on the sublime honor of the Christian
virgin? Who, then, will object to see, during ages when the most savage
barbarism prevailed, those secluded dwellings where the spouses of the
Lord secured themselves from the dangers of the world, incessantly
employed in raising their hands to heaven, to draw down upon the earth
the dews of divine mercy? In times and countries the most civilized,
how sad is the contrast between the asylums of the purest and loftiest
virtue, and the ocean of dissipation and profligacy! Were these abodes
a remnant of ignorance, a monument of fanaticism, which the coryphæi of
Protestantism did well to sweep from the earth? If this be so, let us
protest against all that is noble and disinterested; let us stifle in
our hearts all enthusiasm for virtue; let every thing be reduced to the
grossest sensuality; let the painter throw away his pencil, the poet
his lyre; let us forget our greatness and our dignity; let us degrade
ourselves, saying, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die!"
No; true civilization can never forgive Protestantism for this immoral
and impious work; true civilization can never forgive it for having
violated the sanctuary of modesty and innocence, for having employed
all its efforts to destroy respect for virginity; thus treading under
foot a doctrine professed by all the human race. It did not respect
what was venerated by the Greeks in the priestesses of Ceres, by the
Romans in their vestals, by the Gauls in their druidesses, by the
Germans in their prophetesses. It has carried the want of respect for
modesty farther than was ever done by the dissolute nations of Asia,
and the barbarians of the new world. It is certainly a disgrace for
Europe to have attacked what was respected in all parts of the world,
to have treated as a mistaken prejudice the universal belief of the
human race, sanctioned, moreover, by Christianity. What invasion of
barbarians was equal to this attack of Protestantism on all that ought
to be most inviolable among men? It has set the fatal example in modern
revolutions of the crimes which have been committed.
When we see, in warlike rage, the barbarity of the conquerors remove
all restraint from a licentious soldiery, and let them loose against
the abodes of virgins consecrated to God, there is nothing but what
may be conceived. But when these holy institutions are persecuted by
system, when the passions of the populace are excited against them, by
grossly assailing their origin and object, this is more than brutal and
inhuman. It is a thing which cannot be described, when those who act in
this way boast of being Reformers, followers of the pure Gospel, and
proclaim themselves the disciples of Him who, in His sublime councils,
has pointed out virginity as one of the noblest virtues that can adorn
the Christian's crown. Now, who is ignorant that this was one of the
works to which Protestantism devoted itself with the greatest ardor?
Woman without modesty will be an incentive to sensuality, but will
never attract the soul by the mysterious feeling which is called love.
It is very remarkable, that although the most urgent desire of the
heart of woman is to please, yet as soon as she forgets modesty she
becomes displeasing and disgusting. Thus it is wisely ordained that
what wounds her heart the most sharply, becomes the punishment of her
fault. Hence, every thing that maintains in woman the delicate feeling
of modesty, elevates her, adorns her, gives her greater ascendency
over the heart of man, and creates for her a distinguished place in
the domestic as well as in the social order. These truths were not
understood by Protestantism when it condemned virginity. It is true
this virtue is not a necessary condition of modesty, but it is its
_beau idéal_ and type of perfection; and certainly we cannot destroy
this model, by denying its beauty, by condemning its imitation as
injurious, without doing great injury to modesty itself, which,
continually struggling against the most powerful passion of the heart
of man, cannot be preserved in all its purity, unless it be accompanied
by the greatest precautions. Like a flower of infinite delicacy, of
ravishing colours, of the sweetest perfume, it can scarcely support
the slightest breath of wind; its beauty is destroyed with extreme
facility, and its perfume readily evaporates.
But you will perhaps urge against virginity the injury which it does to
population; you will consider the offerings which are made on the altar
by this virtue as so much taken from the multiplication of the human
race. Fortunately the observations of the most distinguished political
economists have destroyed this delusion, originated by Protestantism,
and supported by the incredulous philosophy of the 18th century. Facts
have shown, in a convincing manner, two truths of equal importance in
vindicating Catholic doctrines and institutions; 1, that the happiness
of nations is not necessarily in proportion to the increase of their
population; 2, that the augmentation and diminution of the population
depend on many concurrent causes; that religious celibacy, if it be
among them, has an insignificant influence.
A false religion and an illegitimate and egotistical philosophy have
attempted to assimilate the secrets of this increase of the human race
to that of other living beings. All idea of religion has been taken
away; they have seen in humanity only a vast field where nothing was to
be left sterile. Thus they have prepared the way for the doctrine which
considers individuals as machines from which all possible profit should
be drawn. No more was thought of charity, or the sublime instructions
of religion with respect to the dignity and destinies of man; thus
industry has become cruel, and the organization of labor, established
on a basis purely material, increases the present, but fearfully
menaces the future well-being of the rich.
How profound are the designs of Providence! The nation which has
carried these fatal principles to the fullest extent now finds itself
overcharged with men and products. Frightful misery devours her most
numerous classes, and all the ability of her rulers will not be able to
avoid the rock she is running on, urged by the power of the elements to
which she has abandoned herself. The eminent professors of Oxford who,
it seems, begin to see the radical vices of Protestantism, would find
here a rich subject for meditation, if they would examine how far the
pretended reformers of the 16th century have contributed, in preparing
the critical situation in which England finds herself, in spite of her
immense progress.
In the physical world all is disposed by number, weight, and measure;
the laws of the universe show infinite calculation--infinite geometry;
but let us not imagine that we can express all by our imperfect signs,
and include every thing in our limited combinations; let us, above all,
avoid the foolish error of assimilating too much the moral and the
physical world--of applying indiscriminately to the first what only
belongs to the second, and of upsetting by our pride the mysterious
harmony of the creation. Man is not born simply for multiplication of
his species; this is not the only part which he is intended to perform
in the great machine of the universe; he is a being according to the
image and likeness of God--a being who has his proper destiny--a
destiny superior to all that surrounds him on earth. Do not debase him,
do not level him with the earth, by inspiring him with earthly thoughts
alone; do not oppress his heart, by depriving him of noble and elevated
sentiments--by leaving him no taste for any but material enjoyments.
If religious thoughts lead him to an austere life--if the inclination
to sacrifice the pleasures of this life on the altar of the God whom
he adores takes possession of his heart--why should you hinder him?
What right have you to despise a feeling which certainly requires
greater strength of mind than is necessary for abandoning one's self to
pleasure?
These considerations, which affect both sexes, have still greater force
when they are applied to the female. With her lively imagination,
her feeling heart, and ardent mind, she has greater need than man of
serious inspiration, of grave, solemn thoughts, to counterbalance the
activity with which she flies from object to object, receiving with
extreme facility impressions of every thing she touches, and, like a
magnetic agent, communicating them in her turn to all that surrounds
her. Allow, then, a portion of that sex to devote itself to a life of
contemplation and austerity; allow young girls and matrons to have
always before their eyes a model of all the virtues--a sublime type
of their noblest ornament, which is modesty. This will certainly not
be without utility. Be assured, these virgins are not taken away from
their families, nor from society--both will recover with usury what you
imagine they have lost.
In fact, who can measure the salutary influence which the sacred
ceremonies with which the Catholic Church celebrates the consecration
of a virgin to God, must have exercised on female morals! Who can
calculate the holy thoughts, the chaste inspirations which have gone
forth from those silent abodes of modesty, erected sometimes in
solitary places, and sometimes in crowded cities! Do you not believe
that the virgin whose heart begins to be agitated by an ardent passion,
that the matron who has allowed dangerous feelings to enter her soul,
have not often found their passions restrained by the remembrance of
a sister, a relative, a friend, who, in one of these silent abodes,
raises her pure heart to Heaven, offering as a holocaust to the Divine
Son of the blessed Virgin all the enchantments of youth and beauty?
All this cannot be calculated, it is true; but this, at least, is
certain, that no thought of levity, no inclination to sensuality has
arisen therefrom. All this cannot be estimated; but can we estimate
the salutary influence exercised by the morning dew upon plants? can
we estimate the vivifying effect of light upon nature? and can we
understand how the water which filters through the bowels of the earth
fertilizes it by producing fruits and flowers?
There is, then, an infinity of causes of which we cannot deny the
existence and the power, but which it is nevertheless impossible to
submit to rigorous examination. The cause of the impotence of every
work exclusively emanating from the mind of man is, that his mind is
incapable of embracing the _ensemble_ of the relations which exist in
facts of this kind; it is impossible for him to appreciate properly the
indirect influences--sometimes hidden, sometimes imperceptible--which
act there with an infinite delicacy. This is the reason why time
dispels so many illusions, belies so many prognostics, proves the
weakness of what was reckoned strong, and the strength of what was
considered weak. Indeed, time brings to light a thousand relations, the
existence of which was not suspected, and puts into action a thousand
causes which were either unknown or despised: the results advance in
their development, appearing every day in a more evident manner, until
at length we find ourselves in such a situation that we can no longer
shut our eyes to the evidence of facts, or any longer evade their force.
One of the greatest mistakes made by the opponents of Catholicity is
this. They can only see things under one aspect; they do not understand
how a force can act otherwise than in a straight line; they do not see
that the moral world, as well as the physical, is composed of relations
infinitely varied, and of indirect influences, sometimes acting with
more force than if they were direct. All form a system correlative and
harmonious, the parts of which it is necessary to avoid separating,
more than is absolutely needful for becoming acquainted with the hidden
and delicate ties which connect the whole. It is necessary, moreover,
to allow for the action of time, that indispensable element in all
complete development, in every lasting work.
I trust I shall be pardoned for this short digression, necessary for
the inculcation of the great truths which have not been sufficiently
attended to in examining the great institutions founded by Catholicity.
Philosophy is now compelled to withdraw propositions advanced too
boldly, and to modify principles applied too generally. It would
have avoided this trouble and mortification by being cautious and
circumspect in its investigations. In league with Protestantism,
it declared deadly war against the great Catholic institutions; it
loudly appealed against moral and religious centralization. And now
a unanimous shout is raised from all quarters of the world in favour
of the principle of unity. The instinct of nations seeks for it;
philosophers examine the secrets of science to discover it. Vain
efforts! No other foundation can be established than that which is
already laid; duration depends upon solidity.