ce of communication between
the two sexes, if we may except the rare instances which history has
made much of, because of their rarity--women of the French salons, who
have become famous for their wit and beauty, in neither of which
attributes did they outstrip the average self-supporting woman of
today.

But custom has slowly, but perceptibly, established the possibility of
a frank and non-sentimental companionship between the male and the
female, and the result is that both are much more clear as to the true
character of their sentiments toward each other. Neither is blinded
by the force of undifferentiated sex-attraction.

There must be some specific basis of mutual love; hence we have the
vogue of the "affinity," and by the term is instantly recognized a
special force of attraction, independent of undifferentiated sex
alone. It is known that there is at least an assumption of an interior
attraction, and we insist that affinity marriages, however incomplete
as yet, are still superior in motive to that of mere marriage, where
it is a case of _a_ male and _a_ female, united by propinquity; family
considerations; commercial interests; class association; or what not.

Affinities at least have the grace to presuppose a special
sex-attraction. They argue for the ultimate goal of special and
permanent selection, even if they fail to reach it.

That there will be many failures during the journey from the
sense-conscious life, to the soul-conscious life, is a foregone
conclusion. The pathway of Love has always been a thorny one, but
those who are on the high ground may look across into the rose-strewn
garden, and know that the little god is aiming his arrows at the
interior nature of those whom he would unite. He is not blind. His
sight is illumined and he sees that the soul can unite only with its
mate. True it is that "the course of true love never did run smooth,"
but let us hope that the time is coming when it will be less thorny.

_There are no mismates in soul-union._

This truth is the "secret of secrets" of the Hermetics. It is the
hidden wisdom of the initiates; the alchemical mysteries of the
Ancients. It is told to us in the fairy story of the Sleeping
Princess--a story which is found in the folk-lore of every country of
the globe. It is the philosopher's stone, which when found, opens the
door to all wisdoms.

_There can be no mismates in soul-union._

Neither can there be any sexual "temptation," or des