“Crescite et multiplicamini”

“Crescite et multiplicamini” is the Latin injunction to “be fruitful and multiply,” cited in a discussion of marriage to expose the gap between procreation and love. Its decisive significance is that a command to reproduce cannot, by itself, establish the affection or happiness that marriage is often presumed to promise.

Meaning and Context

The phrase appears in an argument that marriage is commonly considered as law, contract, and institution, categories that have dominated public discussion of it. Against that framework, the passage observes that many men marry with reproduction, propriety, or the child’s welfare in view. Those may be recognized purposes of marriage, but none is equivalent to happiness.

Reproduction and Love

The biblical-sounding imperative names reproduction as a duty or social end; the passage insists that it does not entail love. It sharpens the contrast by describing a man asking a young woman he has seen fourteen times in a fortnight to love him on behalf of law, king, and justice. The demand makes private feeling seem absurdly summoned into existence by public authority, and the passage associates that presumption with the “fore-ordained.”

The Passage’s Alternative

The discussion then turns to a formulation attributed to Balzac: love joins desire and tenderness, while marital happiness depends on a perfect understanding between two souls. From this account follows an ethical obligation: a man who wants to be loved must love sincerely and observe rules of honour and delicacy. Social laws may sanction desire, the passage argues, but affection arises through different, intimate laws. In this contrast, “Crescite et multiplicamini” marks the limit of marriage as a reproductive institution: procreation can be commanded, but love cannot be secured by command.