els, be
objectionable, what can be said of the only other view which is
possible in the light of the evidence submitted?

Our ideas of what constitutes chastity need revising, else we must
needs decide that chastity is more a vice than a virtue.

For example, consider the character of a mother of the
self-sacrificing, noble type, devoting her life to the welfare of the
human family; interesting herself in all the problems that affect the
generations to come; patient; sweet and wise. Compare her with an
unmarried girl whose body is immune from contact with one of the
opposite sex, but whose mind is bent upon self, and self-adornment;
upon the necessity of capturing a wealthy husband, as a means of this
self-gratification, without regard to any sentiment or even common
affection. Who is the more chaste?

Coventry Patmore says:

"Virgins are they before the Lord,
Whose souls are pure. The vestal fire
Is not, as some mis-read the Word,
By Marriage quenched, but burns the higher."

If purity of soul were synonymous with celibacy, the entire
constantly-copulating cosmos would have long since been demolished;
but despite the mistaken attitude of religious systems toward the
divine function of sex, Humanity is reaching a higher and purer
conception of love. As we approach a higher type of civilization, the
broader, deeper, and more intense becomes our capacity to love. The
more spiritual we become, the more vital is our love-nature, and our
love-nature is grounded in sex. Let us not imagine that spiritual love
is less sexual than is physical love. Spiritual love is physical love,
_plus_ all the other phases of love.

The real objection to sex love on the physical plane is not based upon
its strength, but upon its weakness. If it be nothing deeper than an
attraction of chemical affinities generated by physical activities, it
has no reservoir from which to draw its supply. It is like the
electrical wire that is "short circuited," it expends itself in one
spasmodic combustion.

True spirituality is attained by a process of addition. The common and
erroneous idea of spiritual attainment involves a process of
subtraction.

We need go no further than to review the processes in the external
world of today to understand this fact of the inclusiveness of the
spiritual life, in contradistinction to the generally accepted idea of
exclusiveness which is attached to a contemplation of the so-called
"spiritual."

A