wise friend, whereas perhaps he would do what was harmful to himself if he had not that friend to give him that advice at the right time. 'If it be love for a woman,' said you, 'that is driving a man to ruin, there is an end to that man's selfdefence.' Very good. But suppose the woman is a good and a wise woman, a woman who will weigh in her mind, carefully and correctly, the things that would be bad for that man, and who will do her best to lure him away from them; a woman who will always pray to God for that man, asking God to turn him away from everything bad, and to spur his mind to what would be good for him, spiritually and temporally; a woman who would use the love that man has for her to make him avoid the wrong thing that he likes, and do the right thing that she likes; don't you think that woman is a good help, together with the grace of God, to make that man do what is good for him and avoid what is bad for him? According to you it is only good sense that can make a man do what is good for him, and it is only imprudence that can make a man do what is bad for him. You did a disastrously bad thing for yourself once. Your intelligence was great at that time. But I think your intelligence made a fool of itself. Intellect is a very good thing, no doubt; but there are things that are a great deal better. It often happens that love and friendship and affection and sympathy do good which all the wisdom in the world would fail to do. There is a thing different from all these and better than them all, and better than any wisdom that might accompany them. I don't know whether you have any knowledge of that
