infernal)
existence; they are merely guide-books to a terrestrial journey. At all
events, it is significant that (which might be added as a lemma)

Widows rarely choose unwisely!

(1) Quoted by C. de Varigny in the "Revue des Deux Mondes" of January the
15th, 1893.

* * *

Over that much-bethought-of, much-surmised-about-thing, a proposal of
marriage, every young woman weaves a pre-conceived halo of romance, but

In nineteen cases out of twenty a proposal is either unexpected or
disappointing; that is,

Many a girl has almost held her breath with anxiety as she saw the great
question coming; then almost cried with vexation at the way it came.
For, often,

Either the wrong man proposes or the right man proposes stupidly.

The woman looks for ideal surroundings, a dramatic situation, and
impassioned and poetic utterance; usually,

The man seizes a commonplace opportunity and--stutters. Probably,

The ideal proposal occurs only in novels. And yet--and yet--

Perhaps after all the real proposal is more complimentary to woman than
is the ideal; at least perhaps

The aberration and obfuscation of the man is proof once (i) of her
potency and (ii) of his sincerity.

Did man keep his head, would woman be quite so sure of his heart? Yet it
may be that in these matter woman is liable to err, since

Rarely, if ever, does a woman's heart run away with her head. When it
does--

Ah! the momentary bliss of an unreasoning emotion! Yet

Woman does right to keep her head, for

Almost every woman's happiness depends upon what she does with her
heart--unless indeed she elects to go through life homeless, childless,
and unenspoused; for

Though it is the wife that makes the home, it is the man who must provide
for it. And since

Man, by nature, is probably nomadic and polygamic; not his to debate
whether to give rein to emotion. Woman, by nature, is in far different
case:

For the sake of her child, woman must bind the nomad to herself.
Accordingly,

It is woman who is the true agglutinator and civilizer of society.
Therefore, it comes about that

To order wisely her emotions is the inherited instinct of woman.
Wherefore,

Woman is the conserver of the nation--and this in more senses than one.

* * * * *

IX. On Men and Women

"Dio fa gli uomini, e e' s' appaino."
--Salviati

There are two elements of character which a man should possess, develop,
and maintain unstained if he would find favo