* * *

Beauty without modesty is a rose without perfume:  the petals may delight, but they lack an ineffable savor.  Like a flower, too,

Though the tangible petals are numbered and comptable, the subtle perfume eludes the sense and is inexhaustible.  For

Modesty is the exhalation of the soul:  at once it enhances, as it refines, the potency of beauty.  Nay more,

The sacrosanct aureole of modesty beautifies all it surrounds:  though it diviner haze imperfection there is none.  So,

Given a redolent balm, and the lowliest herb becomes treasured and precious.  And

Each human soul has its own individual essence;

What folly were the violet to envy the rose!  Since

Beauty is much, and grace is much, and mien and demeanor and wit; but a prepotent and psychic essence there is transcending the power of these.  And,

As the suave and subtle essence is not distinct from, but springs from, the tangible and numerable petals, so the spirit perceives that its fleshy vesture is not a thing apart, to be donned or doffed at will, to b e contemned or left out of regards, but indeed at integral and inseparable portion of itself; for

In the very woof and warp of flesh, sprit is immanent and enmeshed.  Indeed—­though in a mystic sense—­

Vesture and wearer are mutually one.  And yet

Love ever essays the task of seeking out the psychic wearer beneath the corporeal vesture—­often with plaintive strife.

When seeker and sought make a mutual search—­the starkest strife is condoned.  But alack!

The mystic unity of the human soul is never wholly divulged—­not even to love—­not even to love.

* * * * *

VIII.  On Courtship

“Un amant fait la court ou s’attache son coeur”.  —­Moliere

A woman really in love and sure of her lover delights in toying with a sort of coquetry of love; as if it pleased her to try to win over again that the winning of which gave so exquisite a pleasure.  And perhaps

The coquetry of love is the surest test of an unquestionable love.  For

When possession can afford to play at pursuit, this but proves possession complete.  Sometimes

An assumed love will resort to the pretty tricks of a real one, in order to assure its object—­or to re-assure itself.

Surrender after a protracted siege has its advantages.  At all events both M and N can look back to more demi-semi happy incidents when the courtship has been long.

Happy that couple can laugh over the incidents of courtship afterwards.  ’T is a portent of impending ill if they cannot.

* * *

Half-heartedness in courtship is not only suicidal, it is murderous.  On the other hand, remember that

In courtship there are various and varying stages.  But there is always the home-gallop.  Remember, too, that