{"product_id":"2940013750913","title":"Maid No More","description":"The young gentlemen of Magdalen College, going about their lawful\u003cbr\u003eoccasions, halted to observe a sensible-looking woman talking to herself\u003cbr\u003ebelow their outdoor pulpit. The academic life offered many opportunities\u003cbr\u003efor baiting, none of which they were apt to neglect; poor scholars,\u003cbr\u003eprofessors, and nonconformists of various kinds were mischief's daily\u003cbr\u003ebread. But women, apart from complaisant persons in taverns, did not\u003cbr\u003eoften offer. The undergraduates therefore gave some attention to this\u003cbr\u003ecreature's words, as they were wont to give attention to the mannerisms\u003cbr\u003eof those who instructed them, with a view to reproducing in caricature\u003cbr\u003ewhat was meant to edify. To their displeasure, the woman was sermonizing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe was saying that each man and woman must be visited personally by God.\u003cbr\u003eEach must know God in his heart of hearts and acknowledge him there in\u003cbr\u003ethe spirit; without this, no ceremony under vaulted stone could avail.\u003cbr\u003eThe young gentlemen found it dry stuff, and were drifting away after a\u003cbr\u003efew conventional catcalls, when they heard words which swung them like\u003cbr\u003eweathercocks. The woman, when naming them Antichrists, a statement\u003cbr\u003ereceived with ironical cheers and some yelping in Latin from the elders,\u003cbr\u003ewent on to assail them as a corporate body and more particularly to\u003cbr\u003eblacken by comparison the College of which they were members.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey had no objection to being told that they were sinners; indeed, the\u003cbr\u003ecomplaint had a flattering ring to those who were hardly old or rich\u003cbr\u003eenough to be able to do much sinning save in a general unspecialized way.\u003cbr\u003eThey had no quarrel with anyone who told them that they were wasting\u003cbr\u003etheir time at the University learning things that were not of God. They\u003cbr\u003ewere amused to hear their chapel called a steeple-house when it had in\u003cbr\u003efact no steeple. But that the College to which they owed loyalty should\u003cbr\u003ebe denominated a cage of unclean birds and the synagogue of Satan was a\u003cbr\u003eprick beyond ordinary symptoms of impatience. They began throwing\u003cbr\u003ewhatever came first to hand, apples, books; those who were near enough\u003cbr\u003elaunched spittle; all were certain of righteousness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe women--there were two of them, but one had done all the talking--did\u003cbr\u003enot budge, or avoid what was flung at them. Thus the affair went on\u003cbr\u003elonger than it ought to have done, long enough to attract the attention\u003cbr\u003eof a young Master of Arts who found his translation of Horace's Art of\u003cbr\u003ePoetry difficult to pursue owing to the din. He had written:--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Wise sober folk a frantic poet fear\u003cbr\u003eAnd shun to touch him, as a man that were\u003cbr\u003eInfected with the leprosy, or had\u003cbr\u003eThe yellow jaundice, or were furious mad\u003cbr\u003eAccording to the moon--\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis nodding head approved the version thus far, and the pen began once\u003cbr\u003emore to skirmish:--\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But then the boys\u003cbr\u003eThey vex and follow him with shouts and noise,\u003cbr\u003eThe while he--\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was perhaps the coincidence of his matter with the evidence of his\u003cbr\u003esenses that made him aware at last of the riot and brought him to his\u003cbr\u003ewindow. Indulgently, for he was young, he called down to the youths to\u003cbr\u003ecease their riot. They replied, with the identical din observed by Horace\u003cbr\u003ecenturies before, that it was the women who were causing disturbance. The\u003cbr\u003eMaster of Arts, on the tip of whose tongue an airy grammatical\u003cbr\u003econstruction complete with needed rhymes was trembling, answered briefly\u003cbr\u003ethat women were not matters to which even the junior members of any\u003cbr\u003euniversity should devote attention, and recommended the constable and the\u003cbr\u003ebride-well. A spokesman, above the laughter of the rest, cleared away\u003cbr\u003ethis misapprehension. The women had no notion of leading into temptation\u003cbr\u003e(yells of mock disappointment) but rather sought to deliver from evil;\u003cbr\u003ewere, in fact, trying to convert their hearers.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47173640782064,"sku":"2940013750913","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013750913_p0.jpg?v=1763589765","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013750913","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}