nto the
crucible and brought into question. They need definite teaching as to
the true nature of marriage; that it is no mere contract to be broken or
kept according to the individual contractor's convenience--I never yet
heard of a contract for bringing into existence, not a successful
machine, but a moral and spiritual being with infinite possibilities of
weal or woe, of heaven or hell--but a sacramental union of love and
life, with sacramental grace given to those who will seek it to live
happily and endure nobly within its sacred bounds--a union so deep and
mystical that even on its physical side our great physiologists are
wholly at a loss to account for some of its effects;[34] a union of
which permanence is the very essence, as on its permanence rests the
permanence and stability of the whole fabric of our life. It can never
be treated on an individualistic basis, though that is always the
tendency with every man and woman who has ever loved. In Mrs. Humphry
Ward's words:

"That is always the way; each man imagines the matter is still for
his deciding, and he can no more decide it than he can tamper with
the fact that fire burns or water drowns. All these centuries the
human animal has fought with the human soul. And step by step the
soul has registered her victories. She has won them only by feeling
for the law and finding it--uncovering, bringing into light the
firm rocks beneath her feet. And on these rocks she rears her
landmarks--marriage, the family, the State, the Church. Neglect
them and you sink into the quagmire from which the soul of the race
has been for generations struggling to save you."[35]

Fall on this rock, stumble into unhappiness and discontent, as so many
do in marriage, and you will be broken. But be faithful to it and to the
high traditions which generations of suffering men and women have worked
out for you, and you will be broken as the bud is broken into the
blossom, as the acorn is broken into the oak--broken into a higher and
stronger life. On the other hand rebel against it, attempt to drag it
down or cast it from its place, and it will crush you, and grind some
part of your higher nature to powder. How strangely and sadly is this
shown in the case of one of our greatest writers, who thought that the
influence of her writings would far outweigh the influence of her
example, but whose name and example are now constantly used by bad me