, for

Just now and then there happens that miracle of miracles, where their
flames up in the man, and their flames up in the maid, in both at once,
unaided and unlooked-for, that divine and supra-mundane spark which
smolders lambent in every youthful breast: when maid and man take mutual
fire at touch of hands and look of eyes,--fire lit at that vestal altar
which knows no source and burns for aye.

II. On Men

"Duskolon esti to thremma anthropus."
--Plato

For man, the over-grown boy, life has commonly two, and only two, sides:
work, and play. Happy he who has for a helpmate one who possesses the
faculty of increasing a zeal for the first and of adding a zest to the
second. Wherein, O woman, thou mayest happily find the two-fold secret
of thy life-work. For

Man is a greedy animal: he wants all or nothing. And fortunately for
him,

Women tacitly extol man's greed: they will not be shared any more than
they will share.

There is something canine in the masculine nature: like a dog over a
bone, it snarls at the very approach of a rival.

* * *

It is curious, but it is true, that proud man becomes prouder (and--more
curious still--at the same time humbler) when weak woman gives him
something--a look a smile, a locket, her hair, a kiss, herself.

* * *

The greater a man's faith in himself, the greater his mistress hers in
him. And perhaps, the greater his mistress her faith in a man, the
greater his in himself. For

A woman's faith in a man works wonders.

* * *

A man to whom a woman cannot look up, she cannot love. Yet,

It is marvelous how a woman contrives to find something to look up to in
a man.

* * *

Many men forget the artistic tendency of the feminine temperament, a
tendency which shows itself in many ways--their love of pretty things,
of pretty ways, and of pretty words. From which three alone we may
deduce the rule that

When with the woman he admires and whose admiration he seeks, a man
cannot be too careful of his dress, his speech, and his manners.

* * *

A believer in Woman is a believer in Good. And vice versa, and mutatis
mutandis.

* * *

Man's standard of value of a woman is usually determined by the scale of
his own emotions. That is to say,

The pedestal upon which a man places a woman (a man always puts a woman
upon a pedestal) is a pedestal erected solely by the effect upon himself
of her charms.

* * *

A man may boast himself invincible