226 THE UNIVERSE 



crowns, is inspired by the love of woman. This was 

 openly proclaimed in the heroic and chivalrous 

 ages and should still be held in grateful remem- 

 brance. 



If love does not always elevate and refine and 

 work the miracles of its magic, it is because men 

 lower their ideals of women and love. Woman has 

 a stronger thirst after the ideal, a more refined 

 sensibility, exquisite fancy and poetic nature and 

 aids man to mount to loftier actions and ideals. 

 In a beautiful picture, Dante is below, Beatrice 

 above; he looks at her and is thus inspired, while 

 her eyes, fixed upon him, seem to say : "Upward, 

 upward ; it is thither we must go together ! " It is 

 said nothing is so irresistible as the enthusiasm of 

 woman. Without reason for believing, without 

 strength for hope, sustained solely by love, she is 

 always full of faith for the great and beautiful 

 things, and with sublime imprudence cries, "For- 

 ward, forward!" and drags man to the most dif- 

 ficult summits of success. 



A wise man says : "In the great and little things, 

 after having consulted science and art, experience 

 and imagination, after having read history and hu- 

 man hearts, also always consult the woman you 

 love, whether it be a question of a book or a law, or 

 a work of art, or of business, industry or poetry. 

 She will certainly have something new to tell you." 

 Ambition often fails to elevate men, they die with- 

 out having attained their full measure of power. 

 Only the love of woman could have given them the 

 energy which ambition and self-love were powerless 

 to bestow. 



In the past ages the world prated much about 



