In courtship, the wooer to the wooed is, in Juliet"s phrase, the G.o.d of her idolatry; in matrimony he is lucky if he is the idol of her deity.
It is a question which is the sweeter: a spontaneous courtship, or one that has sprung from friendship.
In a spontaneous courtship there is all the charm of novelty;
In a courtship that has grown out of affection there is all the trustfulness of friendship. But
Friendship and courtship are two totally distinct things:
In courtship, men and women meet on the flowery-th.o.r.n.y common of love;
In friendship, men and women invite each other over to their respective plots. So,
A friend will show a friend all over his domain;
A lover can but point out to the lover the flowers (and thorns) which grow in the soil to which they are both strangers. 162
It is an open question whether in matters pre-matrimonial, the mode of the French is not preferable to that of the Anglo-Saxon; whether, that is,
Prudence and prevision are not more certain harbingers of matrimonial happiness of matrimonial happiness than are impulse and pa.s.sion.
The French couple, when wedded, are virtually strangers; the Anglo-Saxon have already together enacted some scenes of the matrimonial drama. Yet it is an open question also whether
A more durable domestic affection is not built up from the pristine foundation of total ignorance than from that of a partial acquaintanceship.
The American Elizabeth Patterson, before she became Madame Jerome Bonaparte, could write, "I love Jerome Bonaparte, and I prefer to be his wife, were it only for a day, to the happiest union."
The continentalized Madame Jerome Bonaparte, twenty-six years after she had ceased to be Miss Elizabeth Patterson, could write "Do we not know how easily men and women free themselves from the fetters of love, and that only the stupid remain caught in these pretended bonds?" (1) After all,
Little do any couple know of each other before marriage. Besides Does not a delightful romance envelope the nuptials of strangers? At all events, even if precaution is a foe to impulse, few will be found to deny that
Strangeness is by no means inimical to pa.s.sion. Perhaps, then, Fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts can form a better judgment as to the suitability and adaptability to each other of two young, ardent, and headstrong boys and girls can these themselves; since
Fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts know full well that impulse and pa.s.sion often prove materials too friable for the many-storied fabric of marriage. At all events,
The French mode of contracting a marriage precludes the possibility of perilous and precocious affairs of the heart. Perhaps
The mistake that ardent and headstrong boys and girls make is in thinking that impulse and pa.s.sion are the keys of Paradise. Their Elders know that impulse and pa.s.sion are sometimes the keys of Purgatory.
Prudence and prevision are not keys to any supernal (or infernal) existence; they are merely guide-books to a terrestrial journey. At all events, it is significant that (which might be added as a lemma)
Widows rarely choose unwisely!
(1) Quoted by C. de Varigny in the "Revue des Deux Mondes" of January the 15th, 1893.
Over that much-bethought-of, much-surmised-about-thing, a proposal of marriage, every young woman weaves a pre-conceived halo of romance, but
In nineteen cases out of twenty a proposal is either unexpected or disappointing; that is,
Many a girl has almost held her breath with anxiety as she saw the great question coming; then almost cried with vexation at the way it came.
For, often,
Either the wrong man proposes or the right man proposes stupidly.
The woman looks for ideal surroundings, a dramatic situation, and impa.s.sioned and poetic utterance; usually,
The man seizes a commonplace opportunity and--stutters. Probably,
The ideal proposal occurs only in novels. And yet--and yet--
Perhaps after all the real proposal is more complimentary to woman than is the ideal; at least perhaps
The aberration and obfuscation of the man is proof once (i) of her potency and (ii) of his sincerity.
Did man keep his head, would woman be quite so sure of his heart? Yet it may be that in these matter woman is liable to err, since
Rarely, if ever, does a woman"s heart run away with her head. When it does--
Ah! the momentary bliss of an unreasoning emotion! Yet
Woman does right to keep her head, for
Almost every woman"s happiness depends upon what she does with her heart--unless indeed she elects to go through life homeless, childless, and unenspoused; for
Though it is the wife that makes the home, it is the man who must provide for it. And since
Man, by nature, is probably nomadic and polygamic; not his to debate whether to give rein to emotion. Woman, by nature, is in far different case:
For the sake of her child, woman must bind the nomad to herself.
Accordingly,
It is woman who is the true agglutinator and civilizer of society.
Therefore, it comes about that
To order wisely her emotions is the inherited instinct of woman.
Wherefore,
Woman is the conserver of the nation--and this in more senses than one.