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It was an axiom of the Romans that purity of descent preserved the harmony of both public and private life.

To the Greeks we ever turn for pure ideals, and in the light of the nineteenth century, Spartan customs, far from cruel, by preserving the integrity of moral law, forbade the filching of the great gift of life -- granted according to the will of the gods -- divine; clutched at and hurled through ignorance or passion-infernal.

"The sable land-flood from some swamp obscure,
That poisons the glad husband-field with death,
And by destruction bids its fame endure,
Hath not a sense more sullen, stagnant and impure."