Excerpt from The Physiology of Marriage
Marriage in no way owes its origin to Nature. - The family of the East is altogether different from that of the West. - Man is the minister of Nature, and society engrafts itself upon her. - Laws are made in the interests of morality, and morality is subject to variation.
'Therefore marriage can be subjected to that gradual process of improvement which everything belonging to mankind seems to undergo.'
These words, which were spoken before the Council of State by Napoleon at the time of the debate upon the Civil Code, struck the present writer very forcibly, and sowed, perhaps without his knowing it, the seeds of the work which he is offering to the public to-day. Indeed, when at a much younger age was studying French law, the word 'Adultery' made a strange impression on me. It was writ large in the Code, and the word never presented itself to my imagination without bringing a dismal array of fancies in its train. Tears, shame, hatred, terror, secret crimes, bloody wars, fatherless families, misery, would all be conjured up and suddenly present themselves before me as I read the significant word, 'Adultery'! Later in life, when I had gained a place in the most highly cultured society, I realised that adultery did not uncommonly mitigate the severity of the marriage laws; I found a far greater number of unhappy than of happy marriages, and I considered myself to be the first to observe that, of all human relations, that of marriage was the least advanced.
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