the puritanic
spirit. Any one well-informed on the subject is aware that there is much
coarseness in the manners of the Quakers; and their regard for the
pleasures of the table is open to the observation of all. Nowhere are
drunkenness and infanticide more disgusting and horrible, when they do
occur, than in Calvinistic Scotland. The bottomless corruption of Vienna
is notorious; and much of it is traceable to a species of political
asceticism,--to artificial restrictions other than religious, but
producing similar effects. Politics are a forbidden topic of
conversation. Under this rule, literature is a forbidden topic too; for
literary and philosophical necessarily induces political communication.
In Vienna may be seen the singular spectacle of an assembled multitude
who read, not one of whom opens his lips upon books, or their subject
matter. What then remains? Gallantry. The intellect being silenced, the
passions run riot; and the excessive corruption of the society,--a
corruption which is notorious over the civilized world,--is the natural
consequence. It may safely be assumed that wherever artificial
restraints are imposed on the passions, or on the intellects and
pursuits of men, there must be licentiousness, precisely proportioned to
the severity of the restraint.

Celibacy of the clergy, or of any other class of men, involves
polygamy, virtual if not avowed, in some other class. To this the
relaxation of domestic morals in the higher orders of all Catholic
societies bears testimony as strongly as the existence of allowed
polygamy in India. It is everywhere professed that Christianity puts
an end to polygamy; and so it does, as Christianity is understood in
Protestant countries; but a glance at the state of morals in countries
where celibacy is the religion of the clergy,--among the higher ranks
in Italy, in France, in Spain,--shows that, while the name of polygamy
is disclaimed, the thing is held in no great abhorrence. This is
mentioned here simply as matter of fact, necessary to our inquiry as to
how to observe morals and manners. It is notorious that, wherever
celibacy is extensively professed, there is not only, as a consequence,
a frequent breach of profession, but a much larger indulgence extended
to other classes, in consequence of the restrictions on one. The methods
of marriage in Italy and France,--the disposing of the woman at an early
age, and before she is capable of giving an enlightened consent,--