University of Virginia Library

Transition and reform

There will ensue a fermentation over this as over many other reforms, until we get at last the clear straining of truth, and impurity and error are left among the lees. The fermentation even of fluids is not pleasant. An unsettled, transitional stage is never desirable on its own account. Matrimony, which was once a fixed fact among us, must lose its present slippery foot- ing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more spiritual adherence.

The mental chemicalization, which has brought con- jugal infidelity to the surface, will assuredly throw off this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum is gone.

Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of humanity: