nlookers will do: smile, and simper, and smile again; but in their
inmost heart of hearts they will envy that awkward youth, that simple
maid. For because, in this the first symptoms of unsolicited and
reciprocal love, they will recognize something of the divine and mystical
nature of Love itself, of Love untrammeled by convention or law; of Love
itself, in its purity, its intensity, its diffidence, its terrifying yet
restraining force.

Ah! Love, not in every conflict art thou victor crowned. (2)

(2) Eros anikate machan.--Sophocles, Antigone, 781

* * *

XIII. On Marriage and Married Life

ariston andri ktaema sympathaes gunae.
--Hippothoon

Marriage laws are framed, not for or by the likes and dislikes of men and
women, but by the exigencies of social, often of political, economy.
Therefore

Men and women's likes and dislikes are obliged to conform to the usages
demanded by social and political economy: so

In Turkey women accept with a good grace the custom of a plurality of
wives; in Tibet men accept with good grace a plurality of husbands. In
the western world .. . . Humph!

Always will there be everywhere prevalent a latent hostility between the
likes and dislikes of men and women on one hand, and the laws enforced by
a social and political community on the other. This is why

Always there will be those who will try to "reform" the marriage state:
some looking only to the likes and dislikes of men and women, others only
to the advantages which shall accrue to the State. So,

Some there will be will always advocate a loosening of the marriage bond,
others who will seek to make it indissoluble. Both should remember that

The unit of the State is the family; therefore the State makes laws, not
to suit the tastes or convenience of the husband and the wife, but for
the good and preservation of the family. All of which, surely, is right
and proper, since

It is the business of the State to make laws governing the welfare of the
generations to come. In fine

The children--they are the pivot about which all matrimonial
controversies should turn.

Reformers of marriage laws should seek a preventative, not a cure; since

It is doubtful whether the ills of matrimony are really curable, for,
generally speaking,

Matrimonial incompatibility is a malignant, not a benignant, disease; its
prognosis is doubtful; nor does it run a regular course.

* * *

Many are the women who, soon after ma