“‘I use the Lord of the Kaaba; what is the Kaaba to me?’ said Rabia. ‘I am so near to God that his word, “Whoso nears me by a span, to him come I a mile,” is true for me.’ A famed Mahometan theologian asked her, ‘How she had lifted herself to this degree of the love of God?’ She replied, ‘Hereby, that all things which I had found, I have lost in him.’ The other said, ‘In what way or method hast thou known him?’ She replied, ‘O Hassan! thou knowest him after a certain art and way, but I without art and way.’ When once she was sick, three famed theologians came to her, Hassan Vasri, Malek and Balchi. Hassan said, ‘He is not upright in his prayer who does not endure the blows of his Lord.’ Balchi said, ‘He is not upright in his prayer who does not rejoice in the blows of his Lord.’ But Rabia, who in these words detected some trace of egoism, said, ‘He is not upright in his prayer, who, when he beholds his Lord, forgets not that he is stricken.’” [207] _Page 415, note 1._ See “Clubs,” in _Society and Solitude_, p. 243. [208] _Page 417, note 1._ “The Princess” is the poem alluded to. Mr. Emerson liked it, but used to say it was sad to hear it end with, _Go home and mind your mending_. [209] _Page 426, note 1._ The internal evidence shows that the short speech given below was written after the war. All that is important is here given. There were one or two paragraphs that essentially were the same as those of the 1855 address. On the manuscript is written, apparently in Mr. Emerson’s hand, in pencil, “Never read,” and evidently in his hand, the title, thus:— _Discours Manqué_ WOMAN I consider that the movement which unites us to-day is no whim, but an organic impulse,—a right and proper inquiry,—honoring to the age. And among the good signs of the times, this is of the best. The distinctions of the mind of Woman we all recognize; their affectionate, sympathetic, religious, oracular nature; their swifter and finer perception; their taste, or love of order and beauty, influencing or creating manners. We commonly say, Man represents Intellect; and Woman, Love. Man looks for hard truth. Woman, with her affection for goodness, benefit. Hence they are religious. In all countries and creeds the temples are filled by women, and they hold men to religious rites and moral duties. And in all countries the man—no matter how hardened a reprobate he is—likes well to have his wife a saint. It was no historic chance, but an instinct, which softened in the Middle Ages the terror of the superstitious, by gradually lifting their prayers to the Virgin Mary and so adopting the Mother of God as the efficient Intercessor. And now, when our religious traditions are so far outgrown as to require correction and reform, ’tis certain that nothing can be fixed and accepted which does not commend itself to Woman.