her than
death, to that indifference which is less a sentiment than the absence
of all sentiment.

You, who must go to pay your respects to the Minister of Finance, to
write memorandums at the bank, to make your reports at the Bourse, or to
speak in the Chamber; you, young men, who have repeated with many others
in our first Meditation the oath that you will defend your happiness in
defending your wife, what can you oppose to these desires of hers which
are so natural? For, with these creatures of fire, to live is to feel;
the moment they cease to experience emotion they are dead. The law in
virtue of which you take your position produces in her this involuntary
act of minotaurism. "There is one sequel," said D'Alembert, "to the
laws of movement." Well, then, where are your means of defence?--Where,
indeed?

Alas! if your wife has not yet kissed the apple of the Serpent, 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