uch of the restrictions
that have surrounded your association and manifest your affection in
reciprocal demonstrations?

We often read the advice to young people not to enter upon long
engagements, and the reason given is that it exacts too much in the
way of self-control, is too great a nervous strain, is too full of
peril. I would like to quote just here a few words by Dr. C.W. Eaton:

"Away with the sexual argument against engagements, and let us all set
about that cultivation of will and purpose which can make the weakest
a tower of strength and the arbiter of his own destiny; and let us say
to our appetites, Thus far shalt thou come and no farther, neither
shalt thou presume to deny to thy master the best earthly
companionship which may come into his life. It may be a far harder
task than the ardent and poetical lover allows himself at first to
think, but the hardest battles are best worth the fighting; and what
manner of men should we become if we systematically evaded life's
conflicts, instead of meeting them squarely and fighting them through
manfully? Dr. Bourgeois says: 'The ancient custom of betrothals is the
safeguard for the purity of morals and the happy association of man
and wife. This institution was known to the Greeks, the Hebrews, the
Romans, and during the Middle Ages. In Germany it has still preserved
its poetical and moral character. The young people are sometimes
affianced many years before their marriage. We see the young man, thus
betrothed, with heart full of his chaste love, absent himself for a
time in order to finish his education, to perform his studies of
science or art, his apprenticeship to a trade, and to prepare himself
for manly life. He returns to his betrothed with a soul which has
remained pure, with a reason enlarged and fortified. Then both are
ripe for the austere duties of marriage.

"'Chaste love, consecrated by betrothals, can be cultivated in the
midst of work. It lightens toil, it banishes _ennui_, it illumines the
horizon of life with delightful prospects; it excites in the young man
the manly courage and the high intelligence to create for himself a
position in the world; in woman, the noble ambition to perfect herself
to become a worthy companion and good adviser.

"'During the stormy period of youth it is the only means of preserving
the virgin purity of the heart and of the body. Does anyone believe
that young men who in good season have in their hearts a love str