ly, unnatural, desperate a thought it is. If
you do not, think over it till you do, till it frightens you. You will
gain a great step thereby in human sympathy, and therefore in the
understanding of history. For many times, and in many places, men have
said, rightly or wrongly, 'It is better to leave none behind me like
myself. The miseries of life (and of what comes after this life) are
greater than its joys. I commit an act of cruelty by bringing a fresh
human being into the world.' I wish you to look at that thought
steadily, and apply it for yourselves. It has many applications: and has
therefore been a very common one.

But put to yourselves--it is too painful for me to put to you--the case
of a married gentleman who sees his country gradually devastated and
brought to utter ruin by foreign invaders; and who feels--as poor Salvian
felt, that there is no hope or escape; that the misery is merited,
deserved, fairly _earned_ (for that is the true meaning of those words),
and therefore must come. Conceive him seeing around him estates
destroyed, farms burnt, ladies and gentlemen, his own friends and
relations, reduced in an hour to beggary, plundered, stript, driven off
in gangs--I do not choose to finish the picture: but ask yourselves,
would an honourable man wish to bring sons--much more daughters--into the
world to endure that?

Put yourselves in Salvian's place. Forget for a few minutes that you are
Englishmen, the freest and bravest nation upon earth, strong in all that
gives real strength, and with a volunteer army which is now formidable by
numbers and courage--which, did the terrible call come, might be
increased ten times in as many months. Forget all that awhile; and put
yourselves in Salvian's place, the gentleman of Gaul, while Franks and
Goths, Burgunds and Vandals were sweeping, wave after wave, over that
lovely land; and judge him rationally, and talk as little as possible of
his superstition, and as much as possible of his human feeling, prudence,
self-control, and common sense. Believe me, neither celibacy, nor any
other seemingly unnatural superstition would have held its ground for a
generation if there had not been some practical considerations of common
sense to back them. We wonder why men in old times went into
monasteries. The simplest answer is, common sense sent them thither.
They were tired of being the slaves of their own passions; they were
tired of killing, and of running th