g. But it
cannot be, it is not to be. My friend, this is enough--we must submit in
humility and faith."

Notwithstanding the calmness with which she spoke, I saw how deeply she
suffered; and yet I thought it wrong to surrender so quickly in this
battle of life. I restrained myself as much as I could, so that no
passionate word should increase her trouble, and said:

"If this is the last time we are to meet in this life, let us see clearly
to whom we offer this sacrifice. If our love violated any higher law
whatsoever, I would, as you say, bow myself in humility. It were a
forgetfulness of God to oppose one's self to a higher will. It may seem
at times as if men could delude God, as if their small sense had gained
some advantage over the Divine wisdom. This is frenzy--and the man who
commences this Titanic battle; will be crushed and annihilated. But what
opposes our love? Nothing but the talk of the world. I respect the
customs of human society. I even respect them when, as in our time, they
are over-refined and confused. A sick body needs artificial medicines,
and without the barriers, the respect and the prejudices of society, at
which we smile, it were impossible to hold mankind together as at present
existing, and to accomplish the purpose of our temporal co-existence. We
must sacrifice much to these divinities. Like the Athenians, we send
every year a heavy boatload of youths and maidens as tribute to this
monster which rules the labyrinth of our society. There is no longer a
heart that has not broken; there is no longer a man of true feelings who
has not been obliged to break the wings of his love before he came into
the cage of society for rest. It must be so. It cannot be otherwise.
You know not life, but thinking only of my friends, I can tell you many
volumes of tragedy.

"One loved a maiden, and the love was returned; but he was poor, she was
rich. The fathers and relatives wrangled and sneered, and two hearts
were broken. Why? Because the world looked upon it as a misfortune for
a woman to wear a dress made of the wool of a shrub in America, and not
of the fibres of a worm in China.

"Another loved a maiden, and was loved in return; but he was a
Protestant, she was a Catholic. The mothers and the priests bred
mischief, and two hearts were broken. Why? On account of a political
game of chess which Charles V and Henry VIII played together, three
hundred years ago.

"A third loved a