a ceremony of formal etiquette; and the two communicate directly by
their presences, and with few looks and fewer words contrive to share
their good and evil and uphold each other's hearts in joy.

*****

And yet even while I was exulting in my solitude I became aware of a
strange lack. I wished a companion to lie near me in the starlight,
silent and not moving, but ever within touch. For there is a fellowship
more quiet even than solitude, and which, rightly understood, is
solitude made perfect. And to live out of doors with the woman a man
loves is of all lives the most complete and free.

*****

The flower of the hedgerow and the star of heaven satisfy and delight
us: how much more the look of the exquisite being who was created to
bear and rear, to madden and rejoice mankind!

*****

So strangely are we built: so much more strong is the love of woman than
the mere love of life.

*****

You think that pity--and the kindred sentiments-have the greatest power
upon the heart. I think more nobly of women. To my view, the man
they love will first of all command their respect; he will be
steadfast-proud, if you please; dry-possibly-but of all things
steadfast. They will look at him in doubt; at last they will see that
stern face which he presents to all of the rest of the world soften
to them alone. First, trust, I say. It is so that a woman loves who is
worthy of heroes.

*****

The sex likes to pick up knowledge and yet preserve its superiority.
It is good policy, and almost necessary in the circumstances. If a
man finds a woman admires him, were it only for his acquaintance with
geography, he will begin at once to build upon the admiration. It is
only by unintermittent snubbing that the pretty ones can keep us in
our place. Men, as Miss Howe or Miss Harlowe would have said, 'are such
encroachers.' For my part, I am body and soul with the women; and after
a well-married couple, there is nothing so beautiful in the world as
the myth of the divine huntress. It is no use for a man to take to the
woods; we know him; Anthony tried the same thing long ago, and had a
pitiful time of it by all accounts. But there is this about some women,
which overtops the best gymnosophist among men, that they suffice
themselves, and can walk in a high and cold zone without the countenance
of any trousered being. I declare, although the reverse of a professed
ascetic, I am more obliged to women for this ideal than I should be to