Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

^'Virgimbiis Puerisque'' 59
alone was really important, that he may
have entertained the thought of other women
with any show of complacency, is a burthen
almost too heavy for his self-respect. But
it is the thought of another past that rankles
in his spirit like a poisoned wound. That
he himself made a fashion of being alive in
the bald, beggarly days before a certain
meeting, is deplorable enough in all good
conscience. But that She should have per-
mitted herself the same liberty seems incon-
sistent with a Divine providence.
A great many people run down jealousy,
on the score that it is an artificial feeling, as
well as practically inconvenient. This is
scarcely fair ; for the feeling on which it
merely attends, like an ill-humoured courtier,
is itself artificial in exactly the same sense
and to the same degree. I suppose what is
meant by that objection is that jealousy has
not always been a character of man ; formed
no part of that very modest kit of sentiments
with which he is supposed to have begun the
world ; but waited to make its appearance