Page:The Relations Tolstoy.pdf/12

 No one, it is true, directly disputes these considerations, which affirm that depravity is unnecessary before as well as after marriage, that one should not artificially prevent childbirth, nor make toys of children, nor esteem physical union above everything else -in short, no one disputes that chastity is better than depravity. But, it is said, "If abstinence be better than marriage, it is evident men should follow the better course. But if they do, then the human race will cease -and the ideal of the human race cannot be extinction."

The extinction of the human race is not a new idea to men of our time, however. It is an article of faith with religious people, and with scientists an inevitable deduction from observations on the cooling of the sun. Not to speak of this, however, there is in the objection a great, widespread, and ancient misunderstanding. It is said, "If man attains to the ideal of perfect chastity, he will be exterminated: -therefore, this ideal is incorrect." But those who argue thus, either intentionally or unintentionally confound two different things -a rule of precept, and an ideal.

Such is Christ's ideal, -the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth; an ideal already foretold by the prophets, when they declared that a time was approaching when all men should be taught of God, when they should turn swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks, when the lion should lie down with the lamb, and all beings should be united in love. The whole meaning of human life consists in progress towards this ideal; and, therefore, the aspiration towards the Christian ideal in all its fullness, and towards chastity as one of its conditions, not only does not exclude the possibility of life; -on the contrary, the absence of this Christian ideal would destroy progress, and, therefore, the possibility of real life.