“Foul jealousy! thou turnest love divine To joyless dread, and mak’st the loving heart With hateful thoughts to languish and to pine, And feed itself with self consuming smart: Of all the passions of the soul thou vilest art. SPENSER’S FAIRY QUEEN. From a strong reluctance to take you into the deep caves of the soul, where evil is forged, I have paused with my pen for hours. One can scarcely descend into the deep hell of passion and guilt without becoming saturated with the brimstone, scorched in the flames. As we enter the mystery of iniquity let us invoke the angels to guard us. * * * * * There is no meaner passion than jealousy. Exclusive, concentrated, intense love does not always and necessarily include jealousy, and very ill does that base emotion accord with the high spirit, dashing pride—the pride of strength that distinguished Hagar. Yet, reader, have you never seen a fine man or woman with one physical deformity, infirmity? and have you never been told that such a blemish on God’s perfect work was the effect of injury sustained in infancy. I have seen a man—a Hercules in strength, an Apollo in beauty and grace—_crippled_—from an injury sustained in infancy through the thoughtlessness of parents. I have seen a woman beautiful as Venus, graceful as Euphrosyne—_blind_—from an injury sustained in infancy through the carelessness of nurses. How ill the shrunk and halting limb accorded with the handsome and manly figure! how ill the extinguished eye harmonized with the beautiful face! These misfortunes were not the faults of the sufferers, yet the effects of these wounds were felt through life, their scars were carried to the grave. And, reader, there are mental and moral deformities, infirmities—_the effects of injuries sustained in infancy!_ more baleful than any physical calamity can be, for they are the cause not only of much sorrow and suffering—as physical ills _may_ be—but of much _sin_, as moral and mental wounds and scars _must_ be, whose fatal influence pursues through life unto death and beyond the grave. Thus a spark of jealousy is dropped into an infant’s heart, it smoulders through long years, and finally bursts out into a destructive flame in the woman’s bosom.