tyled among us courtesans or mistresses--who live in
elegant abodes, in the handsomest quarters of the city. Others, whose
means do not allow them to keep mistresses, disport themselves, after
marriage as before, with Phrynes, for whom their hearts beat stronger
than for their own wives. With the Phrynes they amuse themselves; and
quite a number of the husbands among the "property and cultured
classes" is so corrupt that it considers these entertainments in
order.[78]

In the upper and middle classes of society, the money matches and
matches for social position are the mainspring of the evils of married
life; but, over and above that, marriage is made rank by the lives these
classes lead. This holds good particularly with regard to the women, who
frequently give themselves over to idleness or to corrupting pursuits.
Their intellectual food often consists in the reading of equivocal
romances and obscene literature, in seeing and hearing frivolous
theatrical performances, and the fruition of sensuous music; in
exhilarating nervous stimulants; in conversations on the pettiest
subjects, or scandals about the dear fellow mortals. Along therewith,
they rush from one enjoyment into another, from one banquet to another,
and hasten in summer to the baths and summer retreats to recover from
the excesses of the winter, and to find fresh subjects for talk. The
_chronique scandaleuse_ recruits itself from this style of life: people
seduce and are seduced.

In the lower classes money-matches are unknown, as a rule, although they
occasionally do play a role. No one can wholly withdraw himself from the
influence of the society he lives in,--and the existing social
conditions exercise a particularly depressing influence upon the
circumstances of the lower classes. As a rule, the workingman weds out
of inclination, but there is no lack of causes to disturb his marriage.
A rich blessing of children brings on cares and troubles; but too often
want sets in. Sickness and death are frequent guests in the workingman's
family. Lack of work drives misery to its height. Many a circumstance
pares off the worker's earnings, or temporarily robs him wholly of it.
Commercial and industrial crises throw him out of work; the introduction
of new machinery, or methods of work, casts him as superfluous on the
sidewalk; wars, unfavorable tariffs and commercial treaties, the
introduction of the new indirect taxes, disciplinary acts on the part of
the emplo