Of all the miseries that civil war can bring upon a country the
greatest lies in the appeal which one of the contestants always ends by
making to some foreign government.
Unhappily we are compelled to confess that all women make this great
mistake, for the lover is only the first of their soldiers. It may be a
member of their family or at least a distant cousin. This Meditation,
then, is intended to answer the inquiry, what assistance can each of
the different powers which influence human life give to your wife? or
better than that, what artifices will she resort to to arm them against
you?
Two beings united by marriage are subject to the laws of religion and
society; to those of private life, and, from considerations of health,
to those of medicine. We will therefore divide this important
Meditation into six paragraphs:
1. OF RELIGIONS AND OF CONFESSION; CONSIDERED IN THEIR CONNECTION WITH
MARRIAGE. 2. OF THE MOTHER-IN-LAW. 3. OF BOARDING SCHOOL FRIENDS AND
INTIMATE FRIENDS. 4. OF THE LOVER’S ALLIES. 5. OF THE MAID. 6. OF THE
DOCTOR.
1. OF RELIGIONS AND OF CONFESSION; CONSIDERED IN THEIR CONNECTION WITH
MARRIAGE.
La Bruyere has very wittily said, “It is too much for a husband to have
ranged against him both devotion and gallantry; a woman ought to choose
but one of them for her ally.”
The author thinks that La Bruyere is mistaken.