The lover
of a married woman contracts so many obligations, that scarcely three
men in a century are met with who are capable of discharging them. He
ought to dedicate his whole life to his mistress, but he always ends
by deserting her; both parties are aware of this, and, from the
beginning of social life, the one has always been sublime in
self-sacrifice, the other an ingrate. The infatuation of love always
rouses the pity of the judges who pass sentence on it. But where do
you find such love genuine and constant? What power must a husband
possess to struggle successfully against a man who casts over a woman
a spell strong enough to make her submit to such misfortunes!
We think, then, as a general rule, a husband, if he knows how to use
the means of defence which we have outlined, can lead his wife up to
her twenty-seventh year, not without her having chosen a lover, but
without her having committed the great crime. Here and there we meet
with men endowed with deep marital genius, who can keep their wives,
body and soul to themselves alone up to their thirtieth or
thirty-fifth year; but these exceptions cause a sort of scandal and
alarm. The phenomenon scarcely ever is met with excepting in the
country, where life is transparent and people live in glass houses and
the husband wields immense power.
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