ilization. But for its
scrupulous exactitude many persons might regard this statistical
meditation as a mere joke.

We have felt very much inclined to form a small class of a hundred
thousand individuals as a crowning cabinet of the species, to serve as
a place of shelter for women who have fallen into a middle estate,
like widows, for instance; but we have preferred to estimate in round
figures.

It would be easy to prove the fairness of our analysis: let one
reflection be sufficient.

The life of a woman is divided into three periods, very distinct from
each other: the first begins in the cradle and ends on the attainment
of a marriageable age; the second embraces the time during which a
woman belongs to marriage; the third opens with the critical period,
the ending with which nature closes the passions of life. These three
spheres of existence, being almost equal in duration, might be
employed for the classification into equal groups of a given number of
women. Thus in a mass of six millions, omitting fractions, there are
about two million girls between one and eighteen, two millions women
between eighteen and forty and two millions of old women. The caprices
of society have divided the two millions of marriageable women into
three main classes, namely: those who remain spinsters for reasons
which we have defined; those whose virtue does not reckon in the
obtaining of husbands, and the million of women lawfully married, with
whom we have to deal.

You see then, by the exact sifting out of the feminine population,
that there exists in France a little flock of barely a million white
lambs, a privileged fold into which every wolf is anxious to enter.

Let us put this million of women, already winnowed by our fan, through
another examination.

To arrive at the true idea of the degree of confidence which a man
ought to have in his wife, let us suppose for a moment that all wives
will deceive their husbands.

On this hypothesis, it will be proper to cut out about one-twentieth,
viz., young people who are newly married and who will be faithful to
their vows for a certain time.

Another twentieth will be in ill-health. This will be to make a very
modest allowance for human infirmities.

Certain passions, which we are told destroy the dominion of the man
over the heart of his wife, namely, aversion, grief, the bearing of
children, will account for another twentieth.

Adultery does not establish itself in the hea