s you may; and
the fight with him, for the time, sore, and widely unprosperous.

Do not think I am speaking metaphorically or rhetorically, or with any
other than literal and earnest meaning of words. Hear me, I pray you,
therefore, for a little while, as earnestly as I speak.

52. Every faculty of man's soul, and every instinct of it by which he
is meant to live, is exposed to its own special form of corruption:
and whether within Man, or in the external world, there is a power or
condition of temptation which is perpetually endeavoring to reduce
every glory of his soul, and every power of his life, to such
corruption as is possible to them. And the more beautiful they are,
the more fearful is the death which is attached as a penalty to their
degradation.

53. Take, for instance, that which, in its purity, is the source of
the highest and purest mortal happiness--Love. Think of it first at
its highest--as it may exist in the disciplined spirit of a perfect
human creature; as it has so existed again and again, and does always,
wherever it truly exists at all, as the _purifying_ passion of the
soul. I will not speak of the transcendental and imaginative intensity
in which it may reign in noble hearts, as when it inspired the
greatest religious poem yet given to men; but take it in its true and
quiet purity in any simple lover's heart,--as you have it expressed,
for instance, thus, exquisitely, in the 'Angel in the House':--

"And there, with many a blissful tear,
I vowed to love and prayed to wed
The maiden who had grown so dear;--
Thanked God, who had set her in my path;
And promised, as I hoped to win,
I never would sully my faith
By the least selfishness or sin;
Whatever in her sight I'd seem
I'd really be; I ne'er would blend,
With my delight in her, a dream
'Twould change her cheek to comprehend;
And, if she wished it, would prefer
Another's to my own success;
And always seek the best for her
With unofficious tenderness."

Take this for the pure type of it in its simplicity; and then think of
what corruption this passion is capable. I will give you a type of
that also, and at your very doors. I cannot refer you to the time when
the crime happened; but it was some four or five years ago, near
Newcastle, and it has remained always as a ghastly landmark in my
mind, owing to the horror of the external circumstances. The body of
the murdered woman was found naked, rolled into a h