flames up in the man, and their flames up in the maid, in both at once,
unaided and unlooked-for, that divine and supra-mundane spark which
smolders lambent in every youthful breast: when maid and man take mutual
fire at touch of hands and look of eyes,--fire lit at that vestal altar
which knows no source and burns for aye.




II. On Men

"Duskolon esti to thremma anthropus."
--Plato


For man, the over-grown boy, life has commonly two, and only two, sides:
work, and play. Happy he who has for a helpmate one who possesses the
faculty of increasing a zeal for the first and of adding a zest to the
second. Wherein, O woman, thou mayest happily find the two-fold secret
of thy life-work. For

Man is a greedy animal: he wants all or nothing. And fortunately for
him,

Women tacitly extol man's greed: they will not be shared any more than
they will share.

There is something canine in the masculine nature: like a dog over a
bone, it snarls at the very approach of a rival.