In a spontaneous courtship there is all the charm of novelty;

In a courtship that has grown out of affection there is all the
trustfulness of friendship. But

Friendship and courtship are two totally distinct things:

In courtship, men and women meet on the flowery-thorny common of love;

In friendship, men and women invite each other over to their respective
plots. So,

A friend will show a friend all over his domain;

A lover can but point out to the lover the flowers (and thorns) which
grow in the soil to which they are both strangers. 162

* * *

It is an open question whether in matters pre-matrimonial, the mode of
the French is not preferable to that of the Anglo-Saxon; whether, that
is,

Prudence and prevision are not more certain harbingers of matrimonial
happiness of matrimonial happiness than are impulse and passion.

The French couple, when wedded, are virtually strangers; the Anglo-Saxon
have already together enacted some scenes of the matrimonial drama. Yet
it is an open question also whether