Human Physiology. 



intimate relations of two married partners must be. regulated by 

 themselves, and in this, and in all that pertains to marriage, 

 they must follow the law of charity, do as they would be done 

 by, and what, all things considered, seems to them best for all 

 concerned. Where there is no positive sin, no violation of 

 conscience, we must seek the greatest good, even in a choice 

 of evils ; and we are not to seek our own good merely, but to 

 make sacrifices, if need be, for the good of others. 



Have we the right to prevent conception, to limit the number 

 of children, to regulate families and population ? Every one 

 has the right, for good reasons, not to marry. It is a question 

 of fitness, inclination, or vocation. A man who has a constitu- 

 tional disease which he may communicate to his wife or child 

 has no right to marry. It is doubtful if persons with strong 

 tendencies to consumption, or epilepsy, or insanity should 

 marry. They have the right at least to refrain from so doing. 

 If people have the right not to marry, they must have the right 

 to live in continence in marriage, and to refrain from sexual 

 union when the health of the husband, or the wife, or the 

 interests of their children require it. It is a duty not to have 

 children with such frequency as to destroy the health of the 

 mother; and it may be a duty not to have more than the 

 parents can properly care for ; but this is a more doubtful case, 

 for no one can tell what may be his means and ability. With 

 health, children are a blessing ; and the world is wide, and can 

 easily maintain ten times its present population. Continence, 

 a mutual refraining from the sexual embrace, is, however, the 

 only natural, and ordinarily, the only justifiable mode of pre- 

 venting pregnancy. Pleasure comes of marriage, but marriage 

 was not instituted for pleasure. This is sensuality and gluttony. 

 God has not instituted marriage for health I am quoting 

 theologians but for offspring. To select for union the period 

 when cona-ption is least likely to occur, or to use any means 

 whereby the masculine and feminine elements cannot unite, are 



