often
even without the form of asking her consent,--on the understanding,
tacit or avowed, that she may hereafter place her affections
elsewhere,--these proceedings could have been adopted, could now be
persevered in, only in countries where partial asceticism had induced a
corresponding licentiousness.--The same fact,--the invariable proportion
of asceticism and licentiousness,--exists where by some it would be
least looked for,--in societies which have the reputation of being
eminently pure; and this consideration is sufficient to extinguish all
boasting, all assumption of unquestionable moral superiority in one
people over another. It is not only that each nation likes its own
notions of morals better than those of its neighbours; but that the
very same things which are avowed among those who are called the
grossest, happen with that which considers itself the most pure. Such
superiority as there is is owing, perhaps, in no case to severity of
religious sentiment and discipline, but rather to the worldly ease which
blesses a young and thinly peopled country, and to the high cultivation
of a society which furnishes its members with an extraordinary diversity
of interests and pursuits.

Marriage exists everywhere, to be studied by the moral observer. He must
watch the character of courtships wherever he goes;--whether the young
lady is negociated for and promised by her guardians, without having
seen her intended; like the poor girl who, when she asked her mother to
point out her future husband from among a number of gentlemen, was
silenced with the rebuke, "What is that to you?"--or whether they are
left free to exchange their faith "by flowing stream, through wood, or
craggy wild," as in the United States;--or whether there is a medium
between these two extremes, as in England. He must observe how fate is
defied by lovers in various countries. We have seen what was the
acquiescence of Philip and Hannah in their eternal separation. None but
Moravians, perhaps, would have so parted for ever. Scotch lovers agree
to come together after so many years spent in providing the
"plenishing." Irish lovers conclude the business, in case of difficulty,
by appearing before the priest the next morning. There is recourse to a
balcony and rope-ladder in one country; a steam-boat and back-settlement
in another; trust and patience in a third; and intermediate
flirtations, to pass the time, in a fourth. He must note the degree of
world