Human Physiology. 



The law of marriage is, that a mature man and woman, with 

 sound health, pure lives, and a reasonable prospect of comfort- 

 ably educating a family, when drawn to each other by the 

 attraction of a mutual love, should chastely and temperately 

 unite for offspring. The sexual relation has this chief and con- 

 trolling purpose. The law of nature is intercourse for repro 

 duction. Throughout the vegetable and animal world there is 

 no other. Pleasure is a secondary consideration. " Marriage," 

 says St. Francis de Sales, a wise and holy man who speaks the 

 law of the Church, " is for progeny ; mere sensual pleasure is 

 not a sufficient motive. It is the same as with regard to food. 

 The motive to eat is not to gratify the appetite, but to nourish 

 the body. The sin in both cases is in seeking sensual delight 

 apart from natural use." The use of marriage for any other 

 purpose is never allowed, except as a concession to human 

 infirmity, or as a preventive of greater evils, as polygamy was 

 permitted under the earlier dispensation. Under the Christian 

 law, marriage is the symbol of the union of Christ with the 

 Church ; husband and wife are one in the Lord ; they are to 

 live in marriage chastity, not in lust and un cleanness ; and there 

 cannot be a more hideous violation of Christian morals than 

 for a husband to wreak his sensuality upon a feeble wife against 

 her wishes, and when she has no desire for offspring, and no 

 power to give them the healthy constitutions and maternal care 

 which is their right. 



The law of Christian morality is very clear. It is the sexual 

 union first and chiefly for its principal object. It is for the 

 husband to refrain from it whenever it is not desired ; when- 

 ever it would be hurtful to either ; whenever it would be a 

 waste of life ; whenever it would injure mother and child, as 

 during pregnancy and lactation. A man who truly loves a 

 woman, must respect and reverence her, and cannot make her 

 the victim of his inordinate and unbridled, selfish and sensual 

 nature. He will be ever, from the first moment of joyful pos- 



