gth of the individual's
hold upon life; and may be said to mark the height of his, or her,
attainment in the scale of being. It is only another out of many
indications of the strength of sexual emotion in women that so many
of them are afraid of the beauty and the natural joys of love.

There is one thing more I would wish to point out in closing this very
insufficient survey of an exceedingly complicated and difficult
subject. To me it seems that here, in this finer understanding of
love, we open the door to the only remedy that will wipe out the
hateful fear of women, which has wrought such havoc in the
relationship between the sexes. Woman, restrained to purity, has of
necessity fallen often into impurity. And men, knowing this better
than woman herself, have feared her, though they have failed in any
true understanding of the cause. Let me give you the estimate of woman
which Maupassant, in _Moonlight_, has placed in the mouth of a priest.
It is the most illuminating passage in one of the most exquisite of
his stories--

"He hated woman, hated her unconsciously and instinctively
despised her. He often repeated to himself the words of Christ:
'Woman, what have I to do with thee?' And he would add, 'It
seems as if God Himself felt discontented with that particular
creation.' For him was that child of whom the poet speaks,
impure, through and through impure. She was the temptress who
had led away the first man, and still continued her work of
perdition; a frail creature but dangerous, mysteriously
disturbing. And even more than their sinful bodies he hated
their loving souls.... God, in his opinion, had created woman
solely to tempt man, to put him to the proof."

One lesson women and men have to learn: so easy to be put into words,
so difficult to carry out by deeds. To get good from each other the
sexes must give love the one to the other. The human heart in
loneliness eats out itself, causes its own emptiness, creates its own
terrors. Nature gives lavishly, wantonly, and woman is nearer to
Nature than man is, therefore she must give the more freely, the more
generously. There can be no such thing as the goodness of one-half of
life without the goodness of the other half. Love between woman and
man is mutual; is continual giving. Not by storing up for the good of
one sex or in waste for the pleasure of the other, but by free
bestowing is salvation. Wherefore, not in the