[To the Editor of the Spec-rATon.] SIR,—If I adopt Mr.
A. T. Fryer's phraseology with a difference I should find myself saying that " it is impossible to express the satisfaction I felt when reading on page 188 of last Satur- day's Spectator your advocacy of the use of contraceptives." For, as a recent case before Mr. Lawrie shows, the prejudices of good people are like a yellow fog, warping their judgment and blinding their eyes against plain facts. Mr. Fryer charges you with unashamedly adopting an ethical standard which flatly contradicts the teaching of Christ and His Church. I should think that the adverb " unashamedly " fitted better his calm assumption of knowledge about Christ and His Church, and his equally calm assumption that the use of contraceptives is " the cult of hedonism." The question at issue is as much one of economics as of ethics, and the. only sound ethical rule is that the rightfulness of an act is to be determined by its total consequences. Perhaps Mr. Fryer is as well able to forecast these as he is to declare " the teaching of Christ and His Church." Others will be more modest. The Spectator is to be thanked, not rebuked, for its courage in this matter, and its sanity.—I am, Sir, &e.,
W. F. GEIKIE-COBB, D.D.
Previous page
