THE AGENT. Marriage is the nest-building instinct, turned by the Devil
himself into an institution to hold the human soul in chains. The whole
story of marriage is told in the old riddle: "Why do birds in their
nests agree? Because if they don't, they'll fall out." That's it.
Marriage is a nest so small that there is no room in it for
disagreement. Now it may be all right for birds to agree, but human
beings are not built that way. They disagree, and home becomes a little
hell. Or else they do agree, at the expense of the soul's freedom
stifled in one or both.