Note 2 — Chapter XIV · THE MYSTERY OF THE RESURRECTION AND OF THE MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION.

Virginity in itself is to him the highest moral idea, the cornu copiæ of his supranaturalistic feelings and ideas, his personified sense of honour and of shame before common nature.2 Nevertheless, there stirs in his bosom a natural feeling also, the compassionate feeling which makes the Mother beloved. What then is to be done in this difficulty of the heart, in this conflict between a natural and a supranatural feeling? The supranaturalist must unite the two, must comprise in one and the same subject two predicates which exclude each other.3 Oh, what a plenitude of agreeable, sweet, supersensual, sensual emotions lies in this combination!