SOCIAL AND ESTHETIC VIEW. 159 



For three months this process of resolving and 

 falling went on, every successive fall being deeper 

 than the preceding. He continued, — 



M I was about to leave home on a journey. Be- 

 seeching the Saviour to help me, I went out into 

 the darkness. From that hour to this the poison 

 has not passed my lips. For four months, however, 

 I was in a wild, dreamy haze, staggering through 

 mist and darkness, a dozen times a day tempted 

 and well-nigh overborne, but conquering for the 

 hour and stru^glin^ on." 



Is it strange that a woman should be unwilling 

 to share a man's heart with so base a rival, getting 

 the smaller share at that? Nay, is it not the won- 

 der of wonders that any woman should feel other- 

 wise ? 



In the fact that not a few wives, sisters, and 

 mothers, from lack of information on the subject, 

 and a loving readiness to sacrifice their own com- 

 fort to the gratification of their dear ones, submit 

 quietly to this ever-encroaching tyrant, — in this 

 fact, may we not find some slight explanation of 

 its almost universal sway ? 



But the case, I fear, is sometimes worse than 

 this. The perpetual strain that comes upon some 

 men from the ambitious craving and promptings of 

 their wives and daughters for a more elegant style 

 of dress and of living, is doubtless irritating as well 

 as wearing. I pity the man who, feeling that be 

 ought not to be thus taxed, and who, failing, in spite 

 of all his toil to satisfy these cravings, is driven to 



