And the second thing they do is to hug their sin in secret, and gloat over it, and try to understand. Which is the myth of New England. Deerslayer refused to be seduced by Judith Hutter. At least the Sodom apple of sin didn't fetch him. But Dimmesdale was seduced gloatingly. Oh, luscious Sin! He was such a pure young man. That he had to make a fool of purity. The American psyche. Of course the best part of the game lay in keeping up pure appearances. The greatest triumph a woman can Have, especially an American woman, is the triumph of seducing a man: especially if he is pure. And he gets the greatest thrill of all, in falling.--"Seduce me, Mrs. Hercules." And the pair of them share the subtlest delight in keeping up pure appearances, when everybody knows all the while. But the power of pure appearances is something to exult in. All America gives in to it. _Look_ pure! To seduce a man. To have everybody know. To keep up appearances of purity. Pure! This is the great triumph, of woman. _A._ The Scarlet Letter. Adulteress! The great Alpha. Alpha! Adulteress! The new Adam and Adama! American! _A._ Adulteress! Stitched with gold thread, glittering upon the bosom. The proudest insignia. Put her upon the scaffold and worship her there. Worship her there. The Woman, the Magna Mater. _A._ Adulteress! Abel! Abel! Abel! Abel! Admirable! It becomes a farce. The fiery heart. _A._ Mary of the Bleeding Heart. Mater Adolerata! _A._ Capital _A._ Adulteress. Glittering with gold thread. Abel! Adultery. Admirable! It is, perhaps, the most colossal satire ever penned. _The Scarlet Letter._ And by a blue-eyed darling of a Nathaniel. Not Bumppo, however. The human spirit, fixed in a lie, adhering to a lie, giving itself perpetually the lie. All begins with _A._ Adultress. Alpha. Abel, Adam. _A._ America. _The Scarlet Letter._ "Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless Motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world." Whose infant was to redeem the world indeed! It will be a startling redemption the world will get from the American infant. "Here was a taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect that the world was only the darker for this woman's beauty, and more lost for the infant she had borne." Just listen to the darling. Isn't he a master of apology? Of symbols, too. His pious blame is a chuckle of praise all the while.