greatsoever his acumen, his astuteness, or his zeal: a woman; a race
horse; a patent; and the money-market. They defy both faith and fate;
they should be the recreations not the resources of life; and he is a
fool who stakes more than a portion of his substance on any one of them.

* * *

What a paltry thing, after all, is man, man uncomplemented by woman! Left
to himself, he stagnates; linked with a woman, he rises---or sinks. A
gentle touch stimulates him, a confiding heart makes of him a new
creature. Under the rays of feminine sympathy, he expands who else would
remain inert. Fame may allure him, friends encourage him, fortune cause
him a momentary smile, but only woman makes him; and fame, friends,
fortune, all are naught if there be not at his side a sharer of his weal.
A man will strive for fortune, strip himself for friends, scour the earth
for fame; but were there no woman in the world to be won, not one of
these things would he do.

* * *




III. On Women

"Ehret die Fanen!"
-Schiller


From woman, who e're she be, there seems to emanate a potency ineffable