Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 18.djvu/520

 One of the most important works of humanity consists in the education of a chaste woman.

Woman, so a legend tells, is the instrument of the devil. She is in general stupid, but the devil gives her his intellect for her support, when she is working for him. You behold, she has done wonders of the mind, of farsightedness, or constancy, in order to do abominable things; but the moment it is not a question of an abomination, she is unable to understand the simplest thing, does not reflect beyond the present moment, and has no endurance, no patience (except in childbirth and the bringing up of children).

All this has reference to the non-Christian, the unchaste woman Oh, how I should like to show to woman the whole meaning of the chaste woman. The chaste woman (the legend about Mary is not given without good reason) will save the world.

Woman's destiny is above all else and preëminently man's destiny, of which I have spoken before. Marriage and children in comparison with celibacy is the same as the conditions of village life as compared with the luxurious life of the city: the conditions of life, celibacy or the family, cannot in themselves influence man. There may be a holy and a sinful celibacy, and there may be a sinful and a holy family.

Every girl, and you in particular, the same as a man in whom an inner spiritual life is beginning, I advise as much as possible to keep away from everything which in our society supports in the girl the idea of the necessity, the desirability, of marriage, and predisposes to it,—novels, music, idle prattle, dances, games, cards, even attire. Truly, it is more pleasant to wash one's own shirt (and for the soul it is so much more useful) than to play secretary all evening, even with the most clever of