xtent from
venereal infection, and against one of the chief causes of
masturbation.

=Catholicism.=--We have already spoken of the celibacy of the Catholic
priests and of its lay origin. The Catholic religion also contains a
series of detailed precepts concerning sexual connection in general
and marriage in particular; precepts which were only gradually
transformed into religious dogmas. As they determine to a great extent
opinions and manners in the sexual domain, they exert a considerable
social influence.

The absolute interdiction of divorce among the Catholics (man has not
the right to separate those whom God has joined together) seals
forever the most unfortunate unions and leads to misfortunes of all
kinds, separation of the married couple, _liaisons_ apart from
marriage, etc. According to Liguori, the Catholic Church prescribes a
number of details concerning sexual relations in marriage. The woman
who, during coitus places herself upon the man instead of under him,
commits a sin. The position and manner of performing coitus are
prescribed in the most minute details, and the holy fathers make the
woman play a part unworthy of her position as wife, while according
the man the widest liberty.

In truly Catholic marriage it is prescribed to procreate as many
children as possible, and all preventive measures in coitus are
severely condemned. Hence, if the woman is very fruitful, the husband
has only the choice between complete abstention from coitus (when both
conjoints are in agreement) and pregnancies following without
interruption. The woman never has the right to refuse coitus to her
husband, nor the latter to refuse it to his wife, so long as he is
capable of accomplishing it.

It is easy to understand what powerful effects such precepts have had
and still have on the conjugal life of the Catholics, particularly on
the quantity and quality of their descendants.

=Aural Confession.=--Confession requires special mention. In his book,
"Fifty Years in the Roman Church" (Jeheber, Geneva), on page 151,
Father Chiniqui, the celebrated Canadian reformer, who later on became
a Protestant, and for many years played an important part in the
Canadian Catholic clergy, mentions the points on which the confessor
interrogates the penitents of both sexes. One cannot reproach him with
being incompetent.

No doubt the Church of to-day would reply that the confessor is not
obliged to put all these questions and that the de