There were also in the cities where his special worship was in vogue, houses of nuns, the inmates of which had vowed perpetual virginity, and it was said that Quetzalcoatl himself had founded these institutions.

" What Vespasiano tells us of this cardinal, born of the royal house of Portugal, adds the virtue of sincerity to Rossellino's work, proving there is no flattery of the dead man in his sculpture.[103] "Among his other admirable virtues," says the biographer, "Messer Jacopo di Portogallo determined to preserve his virginity, though he was beautiful above all others of his age.

And let maids beware, as [5034]Cyprian adviseth, "that while they wander too loosely abroad, they lose not their virginities:" and like Egyptian temples, seem fair without, but prove rotten carcases within.

" It is clear, then, that St. Paul regarded virginity as a "counsel of perfection," and Epictetus uses respecting it almost identically the same language.

Portal, in his "Treatise on Symbolic Colors," says that "white, the symbol of the divinity and of the priesthood, represents divine wisdom; applied to a young girl, it denotes virginity; to an accused person, innocence; to a judge, justice;" and he addswhat in reference to its use in Masonry will be peculiarly appropriatethat, "as a characteristic sign of purity, it exhibits a promise of hope after death."

That they might be constant attendants in the temple, he appointed them pay out of the public treasury; and by enjoining virginity, and various religious observances, he made them sacred and venerable.

Nothing could excel the unsullied virginity of the seals, or of the gummed spaces between them.

She has left her virginity as a relick of popery, and marries in her tribe without a ring.

Better it is indeed to marry than burn, for their soul's health, but for their present fortunes, by some other means to pacify themselves, and divert the stream of this fiery torrent, to continue as they are, [5904]rest satisfied, lugentes virginitatis florem sic aruisse, deploring their misery with that eunuch in Libanius, since there is no help or remedy, and with Jephtha's daughter to bewail their virginities.

The ceremony to prove her virginity which preceded this burst of feeling will not bear the light of description....

I am ill at describing female apparel; but, while she stood at the altar in vestments white and candid as her thoughts, a sacrificial whiteness, they assisted in robes, such as might become Diana's nymphsForesters indeedas such who had not yet come to the resolution of putting off cold virginity.

Before the spouse of Christ came together with her new husband, she knelt down before a crucifix, and recommended her virginity to Christ.

The room, yielding a little in the point of coldness, seemed to share Miss Nellie's fresh virginity, and, barring the pink parasol, set her off as in a vestal's cell.

Holy Saint Catherine, shield my virginity!

And, modest-looking maid, I see you too: An unfit sight to view virginity Guarded with other soldiers than good prayers.

These latter will have "closed his works far too promptly to discover that far from gainsaying the Catholic instinct which prefers virginity to marriage" (not a strictly accurate statement) he makes virginity a condition of the idealized marriage-relation, and finds its realization in her who was at once matron and virgin.

He attacked her with looks, whispers, professions, caresses, and all those arguments which usually conquer yielding virginity; but finding them all ineffectual, he resolved to repair to Memphis, the residence of many eminent conjurers, and implore their magic aid.

Nature, intoxicating her, shattering her will, seemed to have created a strange virginity in that body so familiar with the call of passion.

Both had affianced brides, who, when they heard of this change, also dedicated their virginity to God.