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questionable means conceivable, as an instance of which the present
fashions in evening dress may be cited. I am of opinion that this is not
right.
The truth is, that the whole affair has been exalted by poets and
romancers to an undue importance, and that love in its various
developments is not a fitting object to consume the best energies of
men. People set it before them and strive after it, because their view
of life is as vulgar and brutish as is that other conception frequently
met with in the lower stages of development, which sees in luscious
and abundant food an end worthy of man's best efforts. Now, this is not
right and should not be done. And, in order to avoid doing it, it is
only needful to realize the fact that whatever truly deserves to be held
up as a worthy object of man's striving and working, whether it be the
service of humanity, of one's country, of science, of art, not to speak
of the service of God, is far above and beyond the sphere of personal
enjoyment. Hence, it follows that not only to form a liaison, but
even to contract marriage, is, from a Christian point of view, not a
progress, but a fall. Love, and all the states that accompany and follow
it, however we may try in prose and verse to prove the contrary, never
do and never can facilitate the attainment of an aim worthy of men, but
always make it more difficult. This is my fifth contention.
How about the human race? If we admit that celibacy is better and nobler
than marriage, evidently the human race will come to an end. But, if the
logical conclusion of the argument is that the human race will become
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