rpent, the
Serpent stands before her; you sleep, we are awake, and our book
begins.

Without inquiring how many husbands, among the five hundred thousand
which this book concerns, will be left with the predestined; how many
have contracted unfortunate marriages; how many have made a bad
beginning with their wives; and without wishing to ask if there be
many or few of this numerous band who can satisfy the conditions
required for struggling against the danger which is impending, we
intend to expound in the second and third part of this work the
methods of fighting the Minotaur and keeping intact the virtue of
wives. But if fate, the devil, the celibate, opportunity, desire your
ruin, in recognizing the progress of all intrigues, in joining in the
battles which are fought by every home, you will possibly be able to
find some consolation. Many people have such a happy disposition, that
on showing to them the condition of things and explaining to them the
why and the wherefore, they scratch their foreheads, rub their hands,
stamp on the ground, and are satisfied.

MEDITATION IX.

EPILOGUE.

Faithful to our promise, this first part has indicated the general
causes which bring all marriages to the crises which we are about to
describe; and, in tracing the steps of this conjugal preamble, we have
also pointed out the way in which the catastrophe is to be avoided,
for we have pointed out the errors by which it is brought about.

But these first considerations would be incomplete if, after
endeavoring to throw some light upon the inconsistency of our ideas,
of our manners and of our laws, with regard to a question which
concerns the life of almost all living beings, we did not endeavor to
make plain, in a short peroration, the political causes of the
infirmity which pervades all modern society. After having exposed the
secret vices of marriage, would it not be an inquiry worthy of
philosophers to search out the causes which have rendered it so
vicious?

The system of law and of manners which so far directs women and
controls marriage in France, is the outcome of ancient beliefs and
traditions which are no longer in accordance with the eternal
principles of reason and of justice, brought to light by the great
Revolution of 1789.

Three great disturbances have agitated France; the conquest of the
country by the Romans, the establishment of Christianity and the