sponse to my questioning, Regnier explained to me
how the master had recommended his disciples to give practical effect
to the cult of womanhood. I must remember that it was nothing new and
nothing peculiar to Positivism for men to adore women to the point even
of idolatry. Lovers constantly were doing it. But in these cases the
worshipers did not look beyond the personality of the idol. Possibly,
no doubt, some dim apprehension of the true grounds of woman's
worshipfulness might mingle with the lover's sentiment, but it was very
far from being the clear and distinct sense necessary to redeem his
homage from the charge of extravagance. On the other hand, the spirit
in which women received the homage men rendered them was usually as
mistaken as that in which it was offered. Either, on the one hand, from
an impulse of personal modesty they deprecated it, or, on the other
hand, they accepted it as a gratification to their personal vanity. In
either case, they equally misapprehended their true and valid title
to worship, which, while personal qualities might enhance or partially
obscure it, was itself in root more than personal, and consisted in the
martyr and mother sex which so peculiarly sacrificed and consecrated
them to the interests of humanity as to draw to them the homage and
loyalty of all men who loved their race. It had been the counsel of his
master, Regnier said, that, while his disciples should hold all women in
exalted reverence, they should peculiarly address this general sentiment
to some particular woman, who, being of the same faith, should be able
to accept it worthily and without self-exaltation, in the spirit in
which it was offered.

"Of course the reflection was obvious that in the existing conditions
of the Positivist propaganda in America it would be impossible to find a
woman capable of understanding, much less of accepting, such a relation,
and, therefore, that to me the cult which I had been taught must remain
entirely theoretical. Homage from men which did not insure to the
titillation of the vanity would seem to women, as usually educated,
equally incomprehensible and unprofitable.

"It was in recognition of this situation that Regnier ended by making a
proposition which testified, more strongly than anything else could have
done, both to the enthusiasm and sincerity with which he himself held
the faith he preached, and to his confidence in my own equal singleness
of heart. He had never befor