“The clear dome above us is the roof I live under,” said Ethelbert, “and it covers all sorts of acting people. A few boards nailed together neither roofs life in nor shuts life out. People who are separated are separated by partitions thin as glass and strong as adamant, and repellant or death-dealing as a live electrical wire. Go or stay, as you choose. But, dear child, you need never fear that I should make Captain Grove marry you, or make anybody do anything. Liberty is the law of life. But I see your perception that you are to Reginald a part of a dreadful dream, the same as he is to you, may be true. A hundred marriage services would not in themselves unite you. All you say of the disaster which comes from these unintelligent methods of compelling legal-unions between persons who are abhorrent to each other, is true. You need have no fear of any compulsion.
“We are living in a revolutionary epoch. My family believes marriage is the great sacrament of life. But we do not perceive, however, that all legal marriages are so formed and sustained as to render them sacramental to the parties concerned. Yet we do think that the highest type of marriage is symbolic of the kingdom of heaven. But I will tell you this: If your case were mine, I should not try to right up the wrong I had done by going on to do more wrongs under the shelter of legality. If you consider that Waldemar was damned into being (that was your term, not mine, I should not use it; I do not think he is), your next care should be to bless him out of that condemnatory state, by giving him such instruction and such simple joys in life as will secure him against perpetuating any form of wrong-doing. Put away sadness, Bertha, and remember not wrongs against your brother Reginald. Correct the past by dealing sensibly with the present. Truth and right living will bring good results to the future.
“A large proportion of morals and manners today are unintelligent. Yours have been. But all that ceases today. Excessive emotional wrath at those who have blundered with us, does not help either them or us to better intelligence, nor to the best adjustment of results.”
“Unintelligent? What a niddering word for, for—”
“Yes, unintelligent. A fuller intelligence will render all the mysteries and miseries of life intelligible. For whatever is in the past, you are, with others, responsible. Now waste no more brain-substance in grief, shame or wrath, but conserve all your nervous force for your work. Assume the motherhood which you presumed upon. Your mind is crowded with artificial distinctions. A few simple principles, held to amiably, will make all your life sweet and intelligent, even now.
“You love purity. That characteristic is rooted deep in your nature. You are ethically valuable to the kind of work that must be done in this age, because of that characteristic. I will tell you five points of faith that abide with me. Then you will see why I say that any methods of abusing the brain-substance is unintelligent, and why I say that fuller intelligence concerning woman-nature and possibilities will render intelligible the past miseries and mysteries of life, and will displace them with the spontaneous joyfulness of wisdom’s way of living.
“Do you understand?”
“Certainly I understand. Tell me your five points of faith,” said Bertha, clear-headedly.
“One is, that purity is natural and inherent in humanity. Next, it consists in an invulnerable ability to garner up the vital force within the seven nerve-centers ready for use, just as the electric current is captured and held by the electric dynamo, ready to be put to use in a scientific and purposeful way; in order that great things may be achieved for the race, by means of its light-giving, heat-supplying, weight-lifting and propelling power. Next, I believe purity is a profitable, satisfactory personal possession. For it fills the nerves and brain with a reserve force which is a tremendous reconstructive energy. The possession of purity is always back of that steady brain-building which goes on, with its incessant increase of mental grasp and power of intuitive perception. So that those who have large reserves of the wealth which purity brings, can lay hold on the history of past ages, taking possession of such history in great blocks of time and events; and they can apprehend things which are to come, in time to prepare for crises, one after another, in such a way as to turn what would have been disaster into success. Purity gives one self-possession, and creates a simple, unsullied self, well worth possessing.
“It enables people to dare to state themselves in unqualified correct terms. For their unmixed simple purposes bear each other out in the long run. And I say, Bertha, if all women were legally upheld in being what men delight to be called (that is, Right Honorable,) the sons of such women would be by nature ‘Right Honorables.’ I will uphold you in being right honorable, Bertha, and Waldemar shall be Right Honorable.”