to the psychic plane of sensation. (The Arena, Boston, June 1894.)
It is through the nerves of touch that Borderland wedlock becomes objective. The lover may remain forever invisible, as in the fairy stories, materializing only at night, and then only to the touch of those nerves most capable of sensing his tangibility. But, ghost though he be, it was the testimony of Reginald Scot in his "Discourse of Witchcraft" that the Witch "hath more pleasure that way, they say, than with anie mortall man." The angelic bridegroom, as well as this earthly partner, must live a correct moral life and think clearly; and this means that he must exercise a tenderness, a considerate regard for his wife's comfort and happiness, and also a marital self control of which too many earthly men are ignorant. No wonder then, that, on the plane of sentiment, she should prefor this ghostly spouse to "anie mortall man." And on the plane of physiological relations, I think I have already shown that the husband who is an initiate in the third degree, who has trained his wife therein, can assure her of connubial bliss which is perpetual. The Borderland bridegroom has this advantage, too, over the earthly bridegroom; being able to read his partners thoughts, he can adapt himself to her most delicate fluctuations of sentiment at a moment's warning, and so never fail to be truly her companion.
"If one could prolong the happiness of love into marriage," wrote Rousseau, "we should have Paradise on earth."
In my own case, Paradise the Kingdom of Heaven has come into my earth life, and it has come through my heavenly bridegroom.
