the indulgence of a passion or the study of a
science. How many young people have been saved from debauchery by
self-chosen labors or the persistent obstacles put in the way of a
first love, a love that was pure! And what young girl does not desire to
prolong the delightful childhood of sentiment, is not proud to have her
nature known, and has not felt the secret tremblings of timidity, the
modesty of her secret communings with herself, and wished to oppose them
to the young desires of a lover inexperienced as herself! The gallantry
of the Franks and the pleasures which attend it should then be the
portion of youth, and then would naturally result a union of soul, of
mind, of character, of habits, of temperament and of fortune, such as
would produce the happy equilibrium necessary for the felicity of the
married couple. This system would rest upon foundations wider and
freer, if girls were subjected to a carefully calculated system of
disinheritance; or if, in order to force men to choose only those who
promised happiness by their virtues, their character or their talents,
they married as in the United States without dowry.

In that case, the system adopted by the Romans could advantageously
be applied to the married women who when they were girls used their
liberty. Being exclusively engaged in the early education of their
children, which is the most important of all maternal obligations,
occupied in creating and maintaining the happiness of the household,
so admirably described in the fourth book of _Julie_, they would be
in their houses like the women of ancient Rome, living images of
Providence, which reigns over all, and yet is nowhere visible. In this
case, the laws covering the infidelity of the wife should be extremely
severe. They should make the penalty disgrace, rather than inflict
painful or coercive sentences. France has witnessed the spectacle
of women riding asses for the pretended crime of magic, and many an
innocent woman has died of shame. In this may be found the secret
of future marriage legislation. The young girls of Miletus delivered
themselves from marriage by voluntary death; the senate condemned
the suicides to be dragged naked on a hurdle, and the other virgins
condemned themselves for life.

Women and marriage will never be respected until we have that radical
change in manners which we are now begging for. This profound thought
is the ruling principle in the two finest productions of an imm