They were ashamed of the
word, but not of the thing. Madame Necker, however, sees good possible
in celibacy.
Indeed, I know not how the subject could be better illustrated, than
by separating the wheat from the chaff in Madame Necker's book; place
them in two heaps, and then summon the reader to choose; giving him
first a near-sighted glass to examine the two;--it might be a
Christian, an astronomical, or an artistic glass,--any kind of good
glass to obviate acquired defects in the eye. I would lay any wager on
the result.
But time permits not here a prolonged analysis. I have given the clues
for fault-finding.
As a specimen of the good take the following passage, on the phenomena
of what I have spoken of, as the lyrical or electric element in Woman.
"Women have been seen to show themselves poets in the most pathetic
pantomimic scenes, where all the passions were depicted full of
beauty; and these poets used a language unknown to themselves, and,
the performance once over, their inspiration was a forgotten dream.
Without doubt there is an interior development to beings so gifted;
but their sole mode of communication with us is their talent. They
are, ill all besides, the inhabitants of another planet.
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