OF PROPRIETY
STUDY first Propriety, for she is indeed the pole-star
Which shall guide the artless maiden through the mazes of Vanity Fair;
Nay, she is the golden chain which holdeth together Society,
The lamp by whose light young Psyche shall approach unblamed her Eros.
Verily, Truth is as Eve, which was ashamed, being naked;
Wherefore doth Propriety dress her with the fair foliage of artifice;
And when she is drest, behold, she knoweth not herself again!
I walked in the forest, and above me stood the yew—