The great unmarried / by Walter M. Gallichan.

  • Walter M. Gallichan
Date:
[1916]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The great unmarried / by Walter M. Gallichan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    dangers of this denial, during the period of the highest sexual vigour, beset us on every hand. We must not, however, condemn and misjudge the voluntary celibate in the fashion of some physiological extremists. There is ample ethical justification for celibacy as a self-imposed and purposive denial, and some few are born to this state. We have to determine what is best for the greatest number, and there can be but one answer to an inquiry concerning the relative good of marriage and celibacy in the community. We have abundant negative counsels of chastity and purity. A more positive teaching is necessary. In 1910, seventy men and women of the highest culture met at Florence to discuss the sexual problem. Among the members of the conference were Catholic and Protestant clergymen, Jewish men of science, doctors, economists, and women holding diverse intellectual opinions. The value of pre-conjugal masculine chastity was announced by men of various creeds and philoso¬ phies, and the whole question was discussed from a scientific standpoint.1 It is only upon such a basis that a practicable and truly humane and sound ethic can be established. The congress voiced the opinion of the cultured and earnest minds of Italy, represented by priests as well as by men of science, that “ celibacy ought never to be compulsory; yet they recognised that, considered in itself, individual sexual purity, as a means to a life of high apostolic aim, was not to be despised.” The advocacy of marriage at the age of the highest vigour, as a means of race preservation, sexual morality, and hygiene, does not import an ill-judged disapprobation of individual celibate living, voluntarily adopted from conscientious conviction. We are about to consider a social and personal dilemma arising from several causes. Reflection upon this problem is forced upon all of us at the present time, when its complexity is deepened by the deplorable ravages of war among the most vigorous of the male population. 1 See report of the conference in the appendix to “ Sexual Ethics ” by Professor Robert Michels of Basle University.