In other respects, also,
spare her delicacy. Let all the antecedent parts of your life, if
there are such, which would give her pain, be concealed from her;
_her happiness and her respect for you would suffer from this
misplaced confidence._ Allow her to retain that flower of purity,
_which should distinguish her, in your eyes, from every other
woman_." We should think so, truly, under this canon. Such a man
must esteem purity an exotic that could only be preserved by the
greatest care. Of the degree of mental intimacy possible, in such a
marriage, let every one judge for himself!
On this subject, let every woman, who has once begun to think, examine
herself; see whether she does not suppose virtue possible and
necessary to Man, and whether she would not desire for her son a
virtue which aimed at a fitness for a divine life, and involved, if
not asceticism, that degree of power over the lower self, which shall
"not exterminate the passions, but keep them chained at the feet of
reason." The passions, like fire, are a bad muster; but confine them
to the hearth and the altar, and they give life to the social economy,
and make each sacrifice meet for heaven.
When many women have thought upon this subject, some will be fit for
the senate, and one such senate in operation would affect the morals
of the civilized world.
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