suffering? Some of them are the prey of feverish inflammations more or
less serious, others lie under the cruel tyranny of nervous attacks
more or less violent. All the husbands of these women belong to the
class of the ignorant and the predestined. They have caused their own
misfortune and expended as much pains in producing it as the husband
artist would have bestowed in bringing to flower the late and
delightful blooms of pleasure. The time which an ignorant man passes
to consummate his own ruin is precisely that which a man of knowledge
employs in the education of his happiness.


XXVI.
Do not begin marriage by a violation of law.


In the preceding meditations we have indicated the extent of the evil
with the reckless audacity of those surgeons, who boldly induce the
formation of false tissues under which a shameful wound is concealed.
Public virtue, transferred to the table of our amphitheatre, has lost
even its carcass under the strokes of the scalpel. Lover or husband,
have you smiled, or have you trembled at this evil? Well, it is with
malicious delight that we lay this huge social burden on the
conscience of the predestined. Harlequin, when he tried to find out
whether his horse could be accustomed to go without food, was not more
ridiculous than the men who wish to find happiness in their home and
yet refuse to cultivate it with all the pains which it demands. The
errors of women are so many indictments of egotism, neglect and
worthlessness in husbands.

Yet it is yours, reader, it pertains to you, who have often condemned