ther vehement statement of them somewhat surprises me, as you
yourself married of your own free will, and at an age when women, if
ever, are supposed to know their own minds.

DORCAS. That my own marriage has been a happy one, and that my
good husband has striven, by recognizing my womanly as well as
individual idiosyncrasies, to render the yoke as light as it possibly
can be, is the very circumstance that gives me a right to speak and
offer my testimony against ideas which I think wholly unwarranted by the
facts in the case. The views of modern philosophers, attacking the
sanctity of Christian marriage, are to me perfectly abhorrent. Deprive
marriage of its mystical, sacramental, penitential character, and it
ceases to be the bulwark of a well-ordered society. I must again call
upon St. John Chrysostom to speak for me. He says: 'Marriage is one of
the most surprising mysteries, by reason of the sublime character which
belongs to it, of representing the alliance of Jesus Christ with His
Church. The necessary consequence of which is, that it should not be
contracted lightly and through interested motives. No, marriage is no
bargain; it is the union of the entire life.' This is what true marriage
should be; but in so far as mankind fall below the lofty standards set
before them, so far does actual marriage fail to reach its glorious
ideal. Meantime, reverence for maidenhood is one of the strongest
safeguards of the sanctity of wedded life, and no delusions of any
school, whether romantic, sentimental, Micheletic, humanitarian, or
Lutheranistic, should be permitted to obscure this reverence. Neither my
own experience, nor that of the young maidens best known to me, teaches
me that the idle hours of women are haunted by dreams of some human
lover, who must be found to save them from despair. I cannot think that
marriage is essential to, or even best for, the happiness of women. If
we enter the nearest institution of Charity Sisters, Sisters of Mercy,
or of the Poor, we cannot fail to remark the contrast between the
healthful, cheery, unsolicitous countenances of the inmates, and the
nervous, suffering, careworn faces of the wives and mothers in our
midst. Both live in the conscientious performance of equally estimable
duties, but the pleasing of a Heavenly Master would seem to be a more
peaceful and less wearing task than the gratification of an earthly
lord. Let us hearken for a moment to an eloquent French theologian:
'Wo