all. Is not such divine happiness well worth attaining?'"
The answer to that rests with the women mainly, and to them Marie Corelli says:
"I want you to refuse to make your bodies and
souls the traffickable material of vulgar huckstering,—I
want you to give yourselves, ungrudgingly,
fearlessly, without a price or any condition whatsoever,
to the men you truly love, and abide by the
results. If love is love indeed, no regret can be
possible. But be sure it is love,—the real passion,
that elevates you above all sordid and mean considerations
of self,—that exalts you to noble thoughts
and nobler deeds,—that keeps you faithful to the
one vow, and moves you to take a glorious pride in
preserving that vow's immaculate purity,—be sure
it is all this,—for if it is not all this you are making
a mistake and you are ignorant of the very beginnings
of love. Try to fathom your own hearts
on this vital question—try to feel,to comprehend, to
learn the responsibilities invested in womanhood,
and never stand before God's altar to accept a blessing
on your marriage if you know in your inmost
soul that it is no marriage at all in the true sense of
the word, but merely a question of convenience
and sale. To do such a deed is the vilest blasphemy,—a
blasphemy in which you involve the
very priest who pronounces the futile benediction.
The saying 'God will not be mocked' is a true
one; and least of all will He consent to listen to or
ratify such a mockery as a marriage-vow sworn before
Him in utter falsification and misprisal of His
chiefest commandment,—Love. It is a wicked and
wilful breaking of the law,—and is never by any
chance suffered to remain unpunished."
