Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/299

 the mould of his mind and temperament. Yet let none imagine that the work of self-discipline in Divine Order is light and easy; how can it be? For it is no less than the struggle of an animal in human shape to convert himself — [sic] into a human being proper, the struggle of one who is carnally minded to become spiritually minded, because he has come to perceive that to be carnally minded is death, while to be spiritually minded is life and light and liberty, the only pleasure which fully satisfies and which never palls.

‘I do not see, then, my friends, that I can usefully detain you any longer this morning. You know that the purpose of these services is not to let society down into vulgar licentiousness, but, on the contrary, to raise it into the purity and beauty of Divine Order. But please to bear this in mind, that amatory intercourse between women and men can never be of a neutral character. If it do not raise you upwards, it will drag you downwards; it is either a sacrament or a profanation. Let us pray then to Her whose image stands before you on the high altar that Her spirit may guide us aright. It is only the feminine Wisdom who can decide which desires are harmful and which are beneficial, and under what conditions they may become the one or the other. If the teachers of old were right in their opinion that all are harmful together, then we may be sure that the higher education of women will lead them to stamp out those inclinations, both in themselves and in men. While if, on the other hand, few or none are harmful when properly regulated, then we shall have walked in a vain shadow and disquieted ourselves for nought, by listening to those self-appointed and utterly misguided apostles of a false theology and, in this respect, false morality.’

‘He’s right anyhow in acting in the latter