APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.

Supra, page 76.

A CLERGYMAN'S REMARKS ON ACADEMIC CELIBACY.

THOUGH I feel it presumptuous, with my own very limited experience, to add anything to Mr. Acton's remarks, still, at his express request, I have agreed to do so, having only this qualification, that for a certain period I was a fellow of a college in holy orders, and subsequently vacated my fellowship by marriage. Having no other practical information on the subject in question, of course my views are derived from my own impression merely; and wherever they conflict with Mr. Acton's I can only conclude, as doubtless the reader will do likewise, that my impression is a wrong one.

I have never felt assured of the truth of that maxim, so universally admitted, that the intellectual qualities are in an inverse ratio to the sexual appetites. Without venturing to dispute it, I will merely say I know a host of exceptions, even in my private acquaintance, and have heard the same opinion confirmed by others. The mere fact of a man being single proves nothing about his propensities or habits, unless marriage were the only mode of relief for the passions; therefore the instances of Newton, Pitt, &c., are hardly to me conclusive; and Bacon's advice, most valuable as it reads, is less suggestive of entire abstinence than of moderation only. Again, mythology is not the strongest argument, but, for what it is worth, seems to tend the other way, both Apollo and the Muses being characters of very dubious moral reputation, and even Minerva herself falling under the breath of scandal.

While, therefore, I can clearly see how debauchery would weaken the intellects and debase the mental powers, I do not perceive how the converse must needs follow; that, in an ordinary person, abstinence from sexual gratification, and consequent extinction of sexual desire, will be attended by an elevation and improvement of the intellectual faculties. Whether this be the object of celibacy in the Romanist priesthood it is, as Mr. Acton suggests, of less interest to inquire; but as regards fellows of colleges at Cambridge, there are many other reasons to make celibacy extremely desirable. The object of fellowships is to secure a class of intellectual men who will give their whole time and interest to the care of their college, the instruction of the undergraduates, and the fulfillment of university offices; of course, a single man is able to devote himself to these duties without interruption or anxiety, whereas a married fellow would be bound to bestow much of his time on his family, would find his domestic interests often conflicting with his academ

ical, would be unable to live within the college walls, which contain no sufficient accommodation for such purposes; in fine, would not be a person of that class which the founders of fellowships, wisely or unwisely, desired to establish.

A somewhat absurd result has followed from the University Commission, in accordance with which some of the smaller colleges, such as Caius, Queen's, Peterhouse, and Clare, allow their fellows to marry: allow them, with certain restrictions it is true, tending to limit their tenure to a period of ten years, but, in effect, making the fellowship tenable for life, if the holder only reside at Cambridge, aud place himself on the staff of his college, which at the smaller colleges it is always easy for a man of ability to achieve. I have merely stated roughly the principle on which their statutes are laid down; of course each body has adopted its own varieties. The ludicrous effect has been that, in some cases, tutors expected to stand in loco parentis to the undergraduates, and to be accessible and close at hand at all hours of the day, may be living a mile or more from the scene of action, or possibly in an adjoining village. The modification of statutes at St. John's, which allows college lectureships to be retained by those who have vacated their fellowships, seems likely to produce no inconvenience, as the duties of a lecturer are not incompatible with married life. Even he, however, would be better able to support the college discipline, if resident within the walls, which residence for a married man is, as I have said, impossible.

Looking, therefore, from the academic side of the question, the celibacy of fellows would seem very desirable; but, of course, no one can deny that such a principle involves the sacrifice of individual comfort for the sake of the common advantage. Is this fair to the celibate? I think not. It has always seemed to me that a single man is in an unnatural position; a being created by the Almighty to "increase and multiply" a race "made from the beginning male and female," that "a man might cleave to his wife and the twain be one flesh," will, of course, have his natural instincts in accordance with this design; and mortify or control them as he may, they are still there, and cannot become extinct. The sufferings of an abstinent life I believe to be cruel to every man between five and twenty and five and forty; and though athletic exercise, regular diet, and so forth, supply some slight relief, still it is never permanent; and in any event of reaction the sufferer will find himself the worse for his previous regularity. Of course a sedentary life aggravates the symptoms, and I cannot believe that any man of ordinary vigor, so living and so abstaining, will be free from emissions, nocturnal or involuntary, or whatever you please to call them. Still these would be among the least of his distresses; nay, in nine cases out of ten I presume that safety-valve of nature is a most happy and beneficial relief; and though I cannot fly in the face of medical authority and deny that there is a pernicious class of the disorder, still I firmly believe all those cases immensely exaggerated by the sufferers and capable of an easy cure, to wit, matrimony, unless the patient by degrading practices has reduced himself to a state of impotence. Moving as I did in many circles, and living on intimate terms with men of all ages, I never heard of or noticed one single case approaching in the remotest degree to the accounts I have read. Of course no sensible person would attach a moment's credit to the poisonous and disgusting works which are issued by advertising firms, or thrust into one's hands in Leicester Square; though still I fancy on weaker minds these books have a great hold, and a tendency to promote the very evils they profess to militate against.

To the majority of men, therefore, who hold fellowships I believe that celibacy is physically and morally a pernicious state to themselves and a very dangerous temptation; but as the abolishing that principle would strike at the root and vitality of the universities, I hold that in this case, as in many similar, volunteers must be found to compose a forlorn hope, and sacrifice themselves for the objects of the mass. Doubtless there are exceptional temperaments to whom the sacrifice is not serious: these are the few men who persevere in retaining their fellowships for twenty years or more, doing an immensity of good to their college and their university, and growing ripe in years and labors,

"Till some snug rectory to their lot shall fall,

Or e'en, that fondest wish, a prebend's stall.”

It is to this happily-constituted minority that Cambridge owes her practical advantages and her immense success. The more self-indulgent majority of fellows win their way to some satisfactory position by the time they are thirty, and then exchange (without much regret) for domestic life the two hundred or so per annum which they have previously been drawing from their college. The emolument of a fellowship is in itself a mere pittance at Cambridge, on which no man could live there with any comfort. But it makes a pleasant addition to the income a person may insure from other sources, such as lectureships, tutorships, professorships, &c. It is strange how misinformed the outer world have always been on this point; I mean "the affluence and idleness" of academic life: though the undergraduate has to work somewhat hard for any degree which will insure him a fellowship, he soon finds that the real labor of life begins only as soon as he is made a fellow of his college. I don't suppose there exists in England a more diligent, persevering, energetic body of men than the fellows of colleges at our universities, or any who receive more insignificant payment in requital for their serious exertions. If a life of constant and healthful employment were really a safeguard against incontinence (alas ! that it only were so!) no member of that society would ever go astray: the instances, it is true, of such scandal are extremely rare; but why? because the good feeling and morality of the men keep them pure in spite of obstacles.

I feel I have trespassed already on the space so kindly allowed me; but I venture to add yet a few words as to what I hold to be the means for preserving continence. Mr. Acton's advice as regards exercise and diet is invaluable, and the greater extreme to which that system can be carried, without injuring the health, so much the better. A man should go into training for a conflict with his appetites just as keenly as he does for the University Eight, the only difference being that the training will be more beneficial and more protracted. Besides diet and exercise, let him be constantly employed; in fact, let him have so many metaphorical "irons in the fire" that he will find it difficult to snatch ten minutes for private meditation; let his sleep be very limited and the temperature he moves in as nearly cold as he can bear; let neither his eye nor his ear be voluntarily open to anything that could possibly excite the passions; if he see or hear accidentally what might have this tendency, let him at once resort to his dumb-bells, or any other muscular precaution, till he is quite fatigued; whenever any sensual image occurs involuntarily to his mind, let him fly to the same resource, or else to the intellectual company of friends, till he feels secure of no return on the enemy's part. Lastly, I would fain add what, Mr. Acton, looking expressly at the physical question, has of course passed over, let the sufferer from sexual causes make his affliction the subject of most earnest

prayer at any and all times to that Ear where no supplication is made in vain Thus armed, he may keep his assailant at bay, though I fear conquest is impossible, and the struggle a most severe one. Sound old Jeremy Taylor, after discoursing on chastity in something like the above strain, says, if I remember right, "these remedies are for extraordinary (i.e. celibate) cases, but the ordinary remedy is good and holy marriage."

CAMBRIDGE.

APPENDIX B.

Supra, page 108.

REMARKS OF AN UNMARRIED LADY ON THE CHOICE OF A WIFE.

Almost the first thing a girl is told in the nursery is that beauty soon fades, and that ugly girls are as much valued as handsome ones; but on their first step over the threshold into the world a woman soon discovers the fallacy of this early teaching; and I perfectly agree with Sydney Smith in his remarks upon personal beauty as affecting the destiny of women. Comeliness of form and beauty of feature ought not to be despised, as they are the gifts of God.

Milton represents Eve as the embodiment of female loveliness. Sarai, the wife of Abraham, was a fair woman to look upon; and Rachel, Jacob's best loved wife, was beautiful and well favored."

It is, however, very difficult to define in what beauty consists. It is more a kind of pleasure conveyed to the mind of the beholder than any special personal attraction of form or figure. All ages and nations agree in worshiping beauty of some sort or other. We see it portrayed in pictures and statues; and one of the great reasons for supposing that it is considered desirable in the eyes of man is, that where it does not exist women frequently try to supply its place by artificial means. It is said that Madame de Staël would have given up all her fame and renown to have been as beautiful as her friend Madame de Rocca; and I doubt very much whether we should have felt the same degree of pity for Mary Queen of Scots, had she been as ugly as her illustrious rival Elizabeth.

It is, however, rare to meet with very ugly women. A mere set of features, however beautiful in form, seldom please an educated man, unless they are lighted up by good sense and good temper. A man soon gets tired of the pretty child wife. After twenty-five the bloom of youth begins to fade, and yet what is called beauty often lasts for years; so that, in a general way, it is the mind and morals that in a great measure influence the appearance of women and heighten their attractions in the eyes of men; and however much they may deny it, or try to conceal it, yet I believe there is inherent in every woman's heart a wish to be pleasing and agreeable to the other sex, and as it is in a great measure the destiny of most women to be married, it seems incumbent upon parents to give girls that judicious training in early life which will fit them to be good wives and mothers; and there is, I believe, no greater happiness on earth than is to be found in the married state, where two