Project Gutenberg's The Physiology of Marriage, Complete, by Honore de Balzac

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Title: The Physiology of Marriage, Complete

Author: Honore de Balzac

Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley

Release Date: July 4, 2005 [EBook #16205]
Posting Date: March 7, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MARRIAGE ***

Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MARRIAGE;

OR, THE MUSINGS OF AN ECLECTIC PHILOSOPHER

ON THE HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS OF MARRIED LIFE

By Honore De Balzac

INTRODUCTION

"Marriage is not an institution of nature. The family in the east is
entirely different from the family in the west. Man is the servant of
nature, and the institutions of society are grafts, not spontaneous
growths of nature. Laws are made to suit manners, and manners vary.

"Marriage must therefore undergo the gradual development towards
perfection to which all human affairs submit."

These words, pronounced in the presence of the Conseil d'Etat by
Napoleon during the discussion of the civil code, produced a profound
impression upon the author of this book; and perhaps unconsciously
he received the suggestion of this work, which he now presents to the
public. And indeed at the period during which, while still in his youth,
he studied French law, the word ADULTERY made a singular impression upon
him. Taking, as it did, a prominent place in the code, this word
never occurred to his mind without conjuring up its mournful train of
consequences. Tears, shame, hatred, terror, secret crime, bloody wars,
families without a head, and social misery rose like a sudden line of
phantoms before him when he read the solemn word ADULTERY! Later on,
when he became acquainted with the most cultivated circles of society,
the author perceived that the rigor of marriage laws was very generally
modified by adultery. He found that the number of unhappy homes was
larger than that of happy marriages. In fact, he was the first to notice
that of all human sciences that which relates to marriage was the least
progressive. But this was the observation of a young man; and with him,
as w