ield a state
of hypocrisy peculiar to no earlier social period. And the State, the
political representative of this society, has no interest, for the sake
of curiosity, in initiating inquiries, the result of which would be to
place in dubious light the social system that is its very foundation.
The maxims, which the State observes with respect to the marrying of
large divisions of its own officials and servants, _do not suffer the
principle to be applied that, ostensibly, is the basis of marriage_.

Marriage--and herewith the bourgeois idealists also agree--should be a
union that two persons enter into only out of mutual love, in order to
accomplish their natural mission. This motive is, however, only rarely
present in all its purity. With the large majority of women, matrimony
is looked upon as a species of institution for support, which they must
enter into at any price. Conversely, a large portion of the men look
upon marriage from a purely business standpoint, and from material
view-points all the advantages and disadvantages are accurately
calculated. Even with those marriages, in which low egotistical motives
did not turn the scales, raw reality brings along so much that disturbs
and dissolves, that only in rare instances are the expectations verified
which, in their youthful enthusiasm and ardor, the couple had looked
forward to.

And quite naturally. If wedlock is to offer the spouses a contented
connubial life, it demands, together with mutual love and respect, _the
assurance of material existence, the supply of that measure of the
necessaries of life and comfort which the two consider requisite for
themselves and their children_. The weight of cares, the hard struggle
for existence--these are the first nails in the coffin of conjugal
content and happiness. The cares become heavier the more fruitful the
marriage proves itself, i. e., _in the measure in which the marriage
fulfils its purpose_. The peasant, for instance, is pleased at every
calf that his cow brings him; he counts with delight the number of
young that his sow litters; and he communicates the event with pleasure
to his neighbors. But the same peasant looks gloomy when his wife
presents him with an increase to his own brood--and large this may never
be--which he believes to be able to bring up without too much worry. His
gloom is all the thicker if the new-born child is a _girl_.

We shall now show how, everywhere, marriages and births are complet