We can only infer from these passages that he had been very unfortunate in the specimens of women with whom he had been thrown.

The Roman ladies of his time were certainly not models of character; he was not likely to fall in with very exalted females among the slaves of Epaphroditus or the ladies of his family, and he had probably never known the love of a sister or a mother's care.

He did not, however, go the length of condemning marriage altogether; on the contrary, he blames the philosophers who did so.

But it is equally obvious that he approves of celibacy as a "counsel of perfection," and indeed his views on the subject have so close and remarkable a resemblance to those of St.Paul that our readers will be interested in seeing them side by side.
In 1 Cor.vii.

St.Paul, after speaking of the nobleness of virginity, proceeds, nevertheless, to sanction matrimony as in itself a hallowed and honourable estate.