never questioned her substantial truthfulness; at that time she had not made any statements of this particular character, but I believe she has done so since. In any case, if all their tales were true, it would only prove, what everybody expects, that there are many isolated cases of immorality; to extend the accusation to the whole body is unwarranted. It can only be said that these cases are numerous, and that there is a vast amount of solitary morbidity; and there is nothing either startling or instructive in the statement. I have no doubt it would be less true of the clergy than of an ordinary body of men if their lives were healthier; but as long as they are indiscriminately bound to celibacy, and to a life which is so productive of egotism, sensuousness, and indolence, it is the only possible condition for them.
Hence the same must be said of the vow of chastity of the secular clergy as of the asceticism and celibacy of monks and nuns. In theory it is admirable for the ecclesiastical purpose, and very noble and graceful to contemplate from the standpoint of Christian asceticism; in practice it is a deplorable blunder, and in these days of little faith it leads to much subterfuge and petty hypocrisy. Like morasticism, it would not be accepted by one half the number if it were not for the practice of involving them in irrevocable engagements before they are conscious of its meaning. Like monasticism, it will probably disappear when the Church of Rome rises at length from her conservative
