On the contrary, it is only as
I stand on the higher ground that I am able to reach forth the hand
that will truly lift him up. The moment I sink myself to the same level,
my power to help ceases.
Just as unwise, to use a familiar example, far more unwise, would it be
for me, were I a woman, to think of marrying a man who is a drunkard or
a libertine, thinking that because I may love him I shall be able to
reform him. In the first place, I should find that the desired results
could not be accomplished in this way, or rather, no results that could
not be accomplished, and far more readily accomplished otherwise, and at
far less expense. In the second place, I could not afford to subject
myself to the demands, the influences, of one such, and so either sink
myself to his level or, if not, then be compelled to use the greater
part of my time, thought, and energy in demonstrating over existing
conditions, and keeping myself true to the higher life, the same time
that might be used in helping the lives of many others. If I sink myself
to his level, I do not help, but aid all the more in dragging him down,
or, if I do not sink to his level, then in the degree that I approach it
do I lose my power over and influence with that life.
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