The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: ecclesiastical sin, was so pardonable, if not necessary, as to be
hardly a moral sin, were notions which Eustace must needs have
gathered from the hints of his preceptors; for their written works
bear to this day fullest and foulest testimony that such was their
opinion; and that their conception of the relation of the sexes was
really not a whit higher than that of the profligate laity who
confessed to them. He longed to marry Rose Salterne, with a wild
selfish fury; but only that he might be able to claim her as his
own property, and keep all others from her. Of her as a co-equal
and ennobling helpmate; as one in whose honor, glory, growth of
heart and soul, his own were inextricably wrapt up, he had never
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