Even from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid.

Even from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid.

'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity;
She that has that is clad in complete steel,
And, like a read more

'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity;
She that has that is clad in complete steel,
And, like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen,
May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths,
Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds;
Where, through the sacred rays of chastity,
No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer,
Will dare to soil her virgin purity.

I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth only in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with read more

I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth only in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield itself upon honest and lawful terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.

Lord, Make me chaste, but not yet

Lord, Make me chaste, but not yet

Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

That chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound.

That chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound.

If she seem not chaste to me,
What care I how chaste she be?

If she seem not chaste to me,
What care I how chaste she be?

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.

Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.

Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.

Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.