fusion. It was not so concentrated
into relief. The unstainedly honorable and virtuous are the vast
majority, and will, when a few evil conditions of society are
outgrown, rapidly become an ever larger majority. Especially do I
believe it to be a truth, which none but the ignorant or the vicious
can question, that every city and village in America, outside of
Mormondom, abounds with matrons and maidens, the face of any one of
whom Purity herself might take for her escutcheon.

But, after we allow every just abatement from the overcharged
representations of the extent of sensual vice in our time, there
remains cause enough to make every lover of virtue anxious to employ
all available means to lessen the force of social temptation and to
increase the firmness Of individual resistance. And there cannot be a
reasonable doubt that high-toned friendships of earnest men and women
would be a holy and powerful restraint from illicit habits. To
represent such attachments and intercourse as dangerous lures to
evil, or, as a popular novelist of the day has called them,
"delusions and snares," is an inversion of their true influence.
Consider the following picture drawn by a young Frenchman from his
own experience amid the exposures of Paris:

"The house of Julius Fontaine is another home for me; he and his wife
are a family for me. When I am gay, I go to them to pour out my
gayety; if I am sad, I go to them to have my grief consoled; they
receive kindly both my joy and my sorrow. No fixed day nor hour of
admission, no ceremony and grand toilet; they receive me when I
arrive; they welcome rue in whatever costume I present myself. I
enjoy to the utmost, with these good friends, the pleasure of being
spoiled; I give myself up to it with delight. As soon as I enter,
they install me in a comfortable arm-chair, in a choice situation in
the corner of the fireplace. They speak to me of every thing that is
interesting to Ime; they listen to all my nonsense; they give me
advice, if I ask for it; they consult me about all they intend doing.
I am initiated, by a lively conversation, into the most minute
details of the household; they relate to me the little triumphs and
misdeeds of the children, whom they caress or scold before me. If the
hour arrives for the meal, my place is set; and, invited or not,
there are sure to be on the table some dishes for which they know my
preference. In playing with the children, in dreaming aloud, in
talking