338 THE EIDDLE OF THE UNIVEKSE. 



Ghost." It is well known that this strenuous and 

 carefully paraded prudery of the higher classes 

 (especially in England) is by no means reflected in 

 the true condition of sexual morality in high quarters. 

 The revelations which the Pall Mall Gazette, for 

 instance, made on the subject twelve years ago 

 vividly recalled the condition of Babylon. 



The Komantic races, which ridicule this prudery 

 and take sexual relations less seriously, find Mary's 

 Romance attractive enough ; the special cult which 

 " Our Lady " enjoys in France and Italy is often 

 associated with this love-story with curious naivety. 

 Thus, for example, Paul de Regla (Dr. Desjardin), 

 author of Jesus of Nazareth considered from a Scientific, 

 Historical, and Social Standpoint (1894), finds precisely 

 in the illegitimate birth of Christ a special " title to 

 the halo that irradiates his noble form." 



It seemed to me necessary to enter fully into this 

 important question of the origin of Christ in the 

 sense of impartial historical science, because the 

 Church militant itself lays great emphasis on it, and 

 because it regards the miraculous structure which 

 has been founded on it as one of its strongest 

 weapons against modern thought. The high ethical 

 value of pure primitive Christianity and the ennobling 

 influence of this "religion of love" on the history of 

 civilization are quite independent of those mythical 

 dogmas. The so-called " revelations " on which these 

 myths are based are incompatible with the firmest 

 results of modern science. 



