tle set of rules and say: "I do not call on that person because he does
not speak the truth; and I won't have anything to do with that one--such
persons are outside the social pale altogether because their conception of
truth is different from mine!"

No, you keep your admiration for the truth-loving and the sincere. You
recognize that people have different standards about what is truth. One
person will never tell a lie under any circumstances: another will reckon
himself free to tell a lie to save a third, or to preserve a confidence;
will you judge which is the more honourable of the two? Where is your
little set of rules? You cannot have one. You shrink from the person who
is morally dishonest and corrupt; you worship the person who loves truth as
Darwin loved it. But between those two extremes what an infinite variety of
attainment! Who can say: "These people are moral because they are married,
and those are immoral, they are not married?" It is not true, it is not
honest, to make these rules our measure. They do not meet the realities
of human nature, and I contend that we, who have known souls so chaste
and lovely that they make us in love with virtue, do far more to raise
the moral standard of humanity by seeking to imitate such people than by
setting up our little codes of rules and condemning or justifying all men
by them. Let us treat this virtue as we do every other virtue, not fitting
it to a set of rules which everyone knows do not fit the realities, but
taking our courage in our hands and judging human beings (if we must
judge them) by their real sincerity, their real unselfishness, their real
unwillingness to exploit others--the measure of the chastity of their
souls.

V

THE MORAL STANDARD OF THE FUTURE: WHAT SHOULD IT BE?

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt
not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh
on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her
already in his heart. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put
away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I
say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for
the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and
whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

"Again ye have heard that it has been said by them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the