ve.
It is the foul cellar which taints the whole house above, be it never so
fine.

What stronger testimony could there be to the instinctive consciousness
that concealment is debauching, and openness our only cure, than the
world-old conviction of the virtue of confession for the soul, and that
the uttermost exposing of one's worst and foulest is the first step
toward moral health? The wickedest man, if he could but somehow attain
to writhe himself inside out as to his soul, so that its full sickness
could be seen, would feel ready for a new life. Nevertheless, owing to
the utter impotence of the words to convey mental conditions in their
totality, or to give other than mere distortions of them, confession is,
we must needs admit, but a mockery of that longing for self-revelation
to which it testifies. But think what health and soundness there must
be for souls among a people who see in every face a conscience which,
unlike their own, they cannot sophisticate, who confess one another
with a glance, and shrive with a smile! Ah, friends, let me now predict,
though ages may elapse before the slow event shall justify me, that
in no way will the mutual vision of minds, when at last it shall be
perfected, so enhance the blessedness of mankind as by rending the veil
of self, and leaving no spot of darkness in the mind for lies to hide
in. Then shall the soul no longer be a coal smoking among ashes, but a
star in a crystal sphere.

From what I have said of the delights which friendship among the
mind-readers derives from the perfection of the mental rapport, it may
be imagined how intoxicating must be the experience when one of the
friends is a woman, and the subtle attractions and correspondences
of sex touch with passion the intellectual sympathy. With my first
venturing into society I had begun, to their extreme amusement, to fall
in love with the women right and left. In the perfect frankness which is
the condition of all intercourse among this people, these adorable women
told me that what I felt was only friendship, which was a very good
thing, but wholly different from love, as I should well know if I were
beloved. It was difficult to believe that the melting emotions which I
had experienced in their company were the result merely of the friendly
and kindly attitude of their minds toward mine; but when I found that
I was affected in the same way by every gracious woman I met, I had to
make up my mind that they must be