value. It is a matter of vital importance to her to have a just idea
of the value of the present she is making when she engages her heart
and her fidelity. In fact, when a thing is lightly appreciated, we
make little account of giving it away and less of choosing those to
whom we give it. Now, if we consider the deplorable facility with
which a vast number of women obey the caprice of their heart or of
their imagination, we will be led to conclude that their valuation of
them--selves is very low indeed. They seem to lose sight of the fact
that in giving their heart they give the key to all the treasures
that enrich their soul; they give their will, all their thoughts,
their whole life. They sometimes give more than all this, they give
their eternal salvation, their conscience, and God Himself, putting
in His place, by a sort of idolatry, the object that claims their
heart.

To prevent this deplorable prodigality of themselves, women should
spare no pains to comprehend thoroughly their dignity, of which they
can never have too high an appreciation or too great an esteem. It
would be most prejudicial to them to lower in their own mind their
just value by a false humility.

The most humble of all women is, at the same time, she who had the
best knowledge of her dignity. And her humility, which was never
equaled by that of any other woman, did not hinder her from seeing
the great things that God had operated in her, as she herself
proclaims in that sublime canticle which is the "Magna Charta" of the
rights, the prerogatives and the greatness of woman.

The two most beautiful and most elevated things in all creation are
the intelligence of man and, the heart of woman. They are the special