Appendix — One Hundred Typical Marriages and Some Characteristic Pictures of the Married State, After Gross-Hoffinger
In a long-forgotten, but very interesting, book by Dr. Anton J. Gross-Hoffinger, entitled “The Fate of Women, and Prostitution in Relation to the Principle of the Indissolubility of Catholic Marriage, and especially in Relation to the Laws of Austria and the Philosophy of our Time,”185 we find a collection, equally interesting to psychologists and to students of human character, to the physician, the jurist, and the sociologist, of a hundred typical marriages, and also a more detailed description of the course of a few marriages. These sketches deserve to be preserved from oblivion, because they will serve equally well as an example of marriages of our time.
In the first place, the author discusses the principal difficulties of marriage. He then asks whether, in view of the smallness of the number of those comparatively happy persons who have found it possible to live a legal and at the same time a natural family life, the existing marriage laws, religious ideas, and social customs have attained their aim, whether they give rise, as a general rule, to happy and fruitful, honourable and blessed unions. The author hesitated long before presenting for the first time “to the Catholic world the picture of the actual state of marriages in that world, a picture based upon numerous experiences and observations.” He investigated one hundred marriages of persons belonging to the most diverse classes, without selection, as they came under his observation by chance; then, again, another hundred, and once again a third hundred. Always the results were equally sad; always the ratio between happy and unhappy marriages was the same. The result of his investigations was, he states:
“Although I have earnestly sought for happy marriages, my search has to this extent been vain, that I have never been able to satisfy myself that happy marriages are anything but extremely isolated exceptions to the general rule.”
In his view this is not the unhappy result of erroneous observation, but depends upon exact observation during a long series of years, and in conditions which brought him into intimate relationship with numbers of persons in all classes of society.
Thus, after a long, difficult, and careful investigation into a hundred marriages among persons of different classes, he obtained the following results, here briefly summarized:
Upper Classes.
1. The marriage not unhappy, wife suffering from disorder arousing suspicion of syphilis; conjugal fidelity of the husband prior to the occurrence of this illness doubtful. Children sickly.
2. Both parties to the marriage happy in advanced age, after the husband had lived freely.
3. Both parties happy in advanced age—childless.
4. Husband impotent, wife unhappy.
5. Husband an old man, wife unfaithful.
6. Husband and wife apparently happy—children scrofulous.
7. The husband removed from home by circumstances, wife unfaithful.
8. Both parties unhappy, the husband a libertine.
9. Both parties apparently content in advanced age.
10. Husband a dissolute old libertine, wife unhappy, but resigned—no children.
11. Condition precisely similar to No. 10.
12. A happy mésalliance.
13. The husband phlegmatically happy, wife dissolute, children ill, mother sickly.
14. Husband dissipated, wife resigned. Husband and wife have come to an understanding.
15. Husband a libertine, wife a Messalina. Both parties syphilitic. Children sickly.
16. Both parties unhealthy and miserable. Husband dissipated, coarse. Wife ill, in a decline.
17. Husband a coarse libertine, wife separated from him and unhappy.
Upper-Middle Classes.
18. Both parties unhappy. Husband impotent. Wife, who is elderly, a Messalina. Marriage childless and unceasingly stormy.
19. Both parties tolerably happy, owing to gentleness and good-heartedness. Husband a sensualist and unfaithful. Wife faithful, ailing.
20. Both parties unhappy. Incessant domestic warfare in the house.
21. Phlegmatic rich husband, poor suffering wife—marriage childless—happily, as it seems.
22. Both parties in very advanced age, apparently happy. Their past doubtful. Scrofulous children.
23. Childless marriage between a former high-class mistress and a dissolute man.
24. An apparently happy marriage between a still young husband and an elderly wife. The former compensates himself secretly.
25. Unhappy marriage. Both parties unsatisfied. Husband dissolute. Wife resigned.
26. Happy marriage.
27. Doubtfully happy marriage.
28. Extremely unhappy marriage. Husband a libertine, unprincipled; wife half insane; children syphilitic.
29. Unhappy marriage, the husband formerly somewhat fickle, the wife unforgiving.
30. Happy marriage. Both parties immoral, dissolute; the wife carries on secret prostitution with the knowledge of the husband, who on his side keeps several mistresses. They take matters philosophically!
31. The husband a libertine and seducer by profession, the wife separated from him.
32. Happy marriage. The husband inclined to gallantry, without being absolutely dissolute. Wife gentle, patient, fond of her husband, and faithful.
33. The husband ill as the result of dissipation, the wife frivolous. Indifferent marriage.
34. The husband made happy by means of his wife’s money, but neglects her; she is very ill, wasting away. Childless marriage.
35. Husband impotent. Wife, with knowledge of her husband, on intimate terms with a friend of the family. In its way a happy marriage.
36. Dissolute husband, dissolute wife, both shameless and free-thinking—in mutual indifference they seem fairly happy.
37. Husband old and sickly, a worn-out libertine. The wife on intimate terms with a friend of the house. Happy marriage!
38. Unhappy marriage. Husband phlegmatic, wife extremely passionate and voluptuous.
39. Unhappy marriage. A worthless speculator who led astray the wife of a wealthy man and then deserted her. Childless.
40. Husband debilitated by excesses; wife immoral. Happy marriage!
41. Husband debilitated by excesses; wife patient. Happy marriage!
42. A similar state of affairs.
43. Happy marriage. Both parties still very young, untried.
44. Happy marriage. Husband phlegmatic—wife faithful.
45. Husband debilitated by excesses, wife rich. At the moment, a happy marriage.
Professional and Trading Classes.
46. Happy marriage. The husband phlegmatic and seldom unfaithful; wife forbearing, good, and faithful.
47. Happy marriage. Both parties rich and young. Husband, without his wife’s knowledge, loves the joys of Venus.
48. Unhappy marriage. An enforced marriage of prudence. The husband lives with a concubine, wife separated from him.
49. Unhappy marriage. Poverty, jealousy, and childlessness.
50. Happy marriage, owing to the forbearance and consideration of the wife towards the sullen, irascible husband.
51. Unhappy marriage. Husband lives happily with a concubine, the wife unhappily with a false friend.
52. Unhappy marriage. Phlegmatic husband, immoral wife, continuous quarrelling.
53. Unhappy marriage. The husband henpecked, impotent. The wife masterful, quarrelsome, and ill-tempered.
54. Husband and wife have separated.
55. Happy marriage. The husband is good-humoured and deceived; the wife a sensual libertine; children sickly; wife incurably ill.
56. Happy marriage. The husband a worn-out debauchee, the wife a worn-out prostitute. Both incurably ill, for the same reason.
57. Happy marriage, happy from necessity and phlegm.
58. Happy marriage. The husband, a swindler, does everything possible for those dependent on him. The wife, formerly a prostitute, is happy in consequence of his care.
59. A happy, artistic marriage. Happy on account of mutual laxity and accommodation.
60. Similar circumstances.
61. Happy marriage. The husband conceals his diversions with success. Wife faithful and always gentle.
62. Unhappy marriage. Light conduct on both sides, with usual results.
63. Happy marriage. The conjugal fidelity of the husband not above suspicion.
64. Similar
65. circumstances.
66. Unhappy marriage. A marriage of prudence. The husband set himself up with his wife’s money, but spends it on light women; the wife revenges herself by boundless ill-temper.
67. Unhappy marriage. Marriage of prudence. The young husband settled in business on the money of his elderly wife; she nags, and he is drinking himself to death.
68. Marriage happy owing to avarice on both sides.
69. Marriage compulsorily happy owing to poverty on both sides.
70. Happy marriage! Husband a drunkard. Wife avaricious. Childless.
71. Husband and wife are separated; the husband abandoned his wife to poverty and prostitution.
72. Unhappy marriage. Husband impotent, wife lustful. Continued unhappiness.
73. Young married pair; wife mistress of a wealthy Jew, who supports the family.
74. Unhappy marriage. Husband dissolute, no longer cares for his wife; the latter incurably ill; children syphilitic.
75. Unhappy marriage. Both parties sickly and poor.
76. A marriage of speculation. Husband has sold his wife three times to different wealthy men; in this way he makes his living.
77. Immoral marriage. The husband lives by a swindling industry. The wife lives on a pension given by one whose mistress she formerly was—children brought up to prostitution.
78. Easy-going marriage. Husband formerly a domestic servant, now in business; wife formerly a prostitute who had saved money. Childless.
79. Happy marriage, between a fool and a clever woman.
80. Unhappy marriage. The husband dislikes his wife, is plagued to death by her; she brought the property into the house.
81. Dissipated husband, dissipated wife, separated from one another. The children scrofulous.
82. Impotent husband, licentious wife, sickly children; angry and stormy scenes.
83. Worn-out libertine, young wife; the parties are not unhappy, owing to affluence and freedom from cares.
84. Artistic marriage. Wife the mistress of a great man. The household goes on comfortably.
Lower Classes.
85. Dissolute husband. Formerly well-to-do, owing to his wife’s dowry, now reduced with her to beggary. Living by a trifling commission business. Wife sickly. Children dead.
86. Marriage happy, in consequence of great poverty.
87. A procurer’s family.
88. Happy marriage. Husband a thief, wife a prostitute.
89. The marriage unhappy in consequence of poverty.
90. Unhappy marriage. The husband a drinker, the wife working amid trouble and poverty.
91. Unhappy marriage. Poverty, misunderstanding, jealousy, and illness.
92. A family of servants. Wife and daughter at the disposal of the master.
93. Unhappy marriage. Frequent brawls. Mutual mistrust, hatred, and contempt.
94. Unhappy marriage. Upright husband deceived by his wife, and, in consequence of great poverty, is unable to control her.
95. Unhappy marriage. Husband has run away.
96. Immoral marriage. Husband, wife, and children live on the wages of unchastity.
97. Miserable marriages,
98. which ended in
99. the poor-house.
100. A happy pair, who had endured all the severe trials of life, had forgiven each other everything, and never abandoned one another, a virtuous marriage in the noblest sense.
Thus, among these hundred marriages there were:
| Unhappy, about | 48 |
| Indifferent | 36 |
| Unquestionably happy | 15 |
| Virtuous | 1 |
| Virtuous and orthodox | — |
Further, among these hundred marriages there were:
| Intentionally immoral | 14 |
| Dissolute and libertine | 51 |
| Altogether above suspicion | ? |
Further:
| Wives who were ill owing to the husband’s fault | 30 |
| Wives who were ill not owing to the husband’s fault | 30 |
| Wives who were unhappy, and had themselves to blame for it | 12 |
Among these hundred marriages only one was happy owing to mutual faithfulness; all the other slightly happy marriages, if one may call them so, were so only because the wife did not disturb herself with regard to the question of her husband’s faithfulness.
From these statistics Gross-Hoffinger draws the following conclusions:
1. About one-half of all marriages are absolutely unhappy.
2. Much more than one-half of all marriages are obviously demoralized.
3. The morality of the remaining smaller moiety is preserved only by avoiding questions regarding the husband’s faithfulness.
4. Fifteen per cent. of all marriages live on the earnings of professional unchastity and procurement.
5. The number of orthodox marriages which are entirely above every suspicion of marital infidelity (assuming the existence of complete sexual potency) is in the eyes of every reasonable man, who understands the demands which Nature makes, and the violence of those demands, equivalent to nil. Hence the ecclesiastical purpose of marriage is generally, fundamentally, and completely evaded.
“No compulsion,” thus concludes the author, “is more unnatural than that of the Catholic (Protestant, Jewish, Greek Orthodox) religion, by which is prescribed a compulsory continuance of marriage, with its fantastic code and ridiculous conjugal duties and rights.
“First of all, this compulsion—this sacrament of marriage—marriage which is nothing, can be nothing, according to nature should be nothing, but a free union and a civil arrangement—results in the avoidance of marriage.
“Secondly, it results that in marriage the purposes of marriage are not and cannot be completely fulfilled.
“Thirdly, that marriage has ceased to be the natural marriage which it should be, and has become merely a business, a speculation, or a hospital for invalids.”
In illustration of this proposition, Gross-Hoffinger finally describes from life twenty-four marriages, some of which, being especially interesting, we will here record.
1.
Countess B., owing to unavoidable difficulties, was unable to contract a suitable marriage, and attained the age of thirty whilst still unmarried. The result of this was she gave herself to a servant, consequently became infected, and died of syphilis some months after she had, finally, married. Her husband was left with an unhappy memorial of this brief marriage.
2.
Count C., a man of high rank, lost his beloved wife through death. Circumstances made it impossible for him to marry again. He was afraid of acquiring venereal disorders, and therefore abstained from natural connexion. Through lack of natural sexual gratification his sexual impulse became perverse, and he took to the practice of Greek love.
3.
Prince D., young, impotent, concluded a marriage of convenience with a beautiful, very passionate lady, who, on account of her husband’s impotence, compensated herself with domestic servants, members of her retinue, and cavalry soldiers, and gave birth in these conditions to several children, which inherited the title of the putative father. In such circumstances the marriage has been very unhappy, but necessity compels the husband to bear his fate with patience.
4.
Count E., in other respects a man of fine character, made a marriage of convenience with a lady of good family, who, however, was not in a position to make him happy. From natural nobility of character, he was unwilling to distress his unhappy wife by entering openly into relations with a concubine, and therefore sought sexual gratification with prostitutes. He became infected, and transmitted the illness to his wife, who became seriously ill, and gave birth to diseased children. Although the poor sufferer is unaware of the origin of her troubles, and bears them with patience; although her husband takes all possible care of her, and does his best to bring about the restoration of her health; the marriage, owing to the uneasy conscience of the husband and the physical suffering of the wife, is obviously a very unhappy one.
5.
Baron F., a man of wide influence, in youth a libertine—frivolous, and of an emotional disposition, insusceptible to finer feelings, contracted successively four marriages of convenience, which in all cases terminated in the death of the wife. There is reason to believe that the unceasing libertinism and unscrupulous conduct of the husband had shortened the life of his wives—and this is all the more probable because all the Baron’s children are sickly and scrofulous.
6.
Count G., dissipated libertine, wasted his property in wild extravagance, and compelled his wife to live apart from him, whilst he spent enormous sums on professional singers and dancers and common prostitutes. Being ruined as completely financially as physically, he was despised by persons of all classes, persecuted by his creditors, and absolutely detested by his wife. Although his pleasures consist chiefly in reminiscences, he still devotes enormous sums to them, the money being obtained by a continued increase in his debts.
7.
Count H. has been married for many years, but lives on the most unpleasant terms with his wife, and devotes his spare time to the society of prostitutes. The scum of the street form his favourite associates; but his voluptuous adventures carry him also into family life, and no respectable middle-class wife or girl, however innocent, is safe from his advances, which are all the more incredible because he is quite an old man and completely impotent. He uses all possible means to make the woman of his choice compliant—presents, promises, threats.
8.
Dr. S., husband of an immoral wife, public official, libertine, philosopher, enjoying a small secured income. Lives with his wife on a footing which permits both parties unlimited freedom. The worthy couple devote their whole energies to earning money by their industry, in part by secret prostitution on the part of the wife, in part by direct and indirect procurement by the holding of piquant evening parties for youthful members of the aristocracy. The family has an extraordinary vogue. Persons of high position are engaged in confidential intercourse with them; young girls of the better classes gladly attend their soirées, since there they meet the élite of the young aristocracy, rich Jews, and officers. This interesting pair get through an almost incredible amount of money; they keep a magnificent carriage, they have a country house, a valuable collection of pictures, etc. It is only from their servants that both of them receive little respect, since the male portion of the household subserve the lustful desires of the wife, the female domestics those of the husband, and all must be initiated into the secrets of the household industry.
9.
Dr. U. was till recently an old bachelor, who had never wished to share his property with a wife and children, and found it much cheaper and more agreeable to impregnate servant-girls and other neglected characters than to keep a mistress, or to seek his pleasures in the street. Finally, becoming infirm at sixty-two years of age, and needing nursing, on account of an occasional gouty swelling of the leg, he discovered that it was not good for man to be alone. Having rank and wealth, it would have been easy for him to find a young and pretty girl who, under the title of wife, would have undertaken to play the part of sick nurse. But the old practitioner knew too well the value of what he had to offer to throw himself away on a poor girl. He considered that it would be reasonable to choose such a partner that he would not be obliged to divide his income, and to find some one to take care of him in his old age who would cost him nothing at all, but would rather provide for her own needs. He thought less, therefore, of youth than of property, less of beauty than of thrifty habits; and finally found an old maid, a woman with some property, who, on account of a somewhat unattractive exterior, had failed to obtain a husband. Now one can see the prudent husband, who is as faithful to his wife as the gout is faithful to him, walking from time to time in the street on the arm of his life companion, whose aspect is somewhat discontented. She still wears the same clothes which she wore before her marriage, and which have a sufficiently shabby appearance, but she endures her lot with patience, because she is now greeted as “gnädige Frau,” and people kiss her hand, as they did not do formerly.
10.
Count J., a man of unblemished character, lived for some time a happy married life. The increasing age of the wife, however, associated with the exceptional constitution of the Count, whose youth seemed remarkably enduring, led to scenes of jealousy, which embittered the life of both. We can hardly suppose that this jealousy is altogether unfounded; but surely it is a matter for regret that two human beings of distinctly noble character should by marriage be exposed to lifelong unhappiness.
11.
Herr von K., a young merchant in the wholesale trade, is married to the daughter of a man of position, and the wife by a rich dowry helped to found her husband’s fortunes; hence she enjoys the distinction over other wives that her husband pretends a great tenderness for her, and conceals his indiscretions with the greatest possible care. For this reason, she has always been devoted to him; she regards him as the example for all other husbands, as a true phenomenon in the midst of an utterly depraved world of immoral men. And as an actual fact, if one sees this man, how he lives in appearance only for his business, with what delicate modesty he avoids any conversation about loose women, if one hears him zealously preach against husbands who deceive their wives, how inconceivable it is to him that a man should find any pleasure in immoral women—one would be willing to swear that he is everything that his wife enthusiastically describes him to be. But some wags amongst his acquaintances, by taking incredible pains, discovered that this honourable merchant had no less than seven mistresses, two of whom belonged to the class of prostitutes, two to the class of grisettes; the remaining three had been decent middle-class women. To these last he presented himself under various names and in the most diverse forms—now as attaché to an embassy, now as an officer, now as a journeyman mechanic. To all these latter mistresses he had promised marriage, and by a succession of presents, oaths, and lies, he had in each case attained his end, and thereafter abandoned them without remorse to the consequences of the adventure, whilst he himself set out to seek in a fresh quarter of the town new sacrifices for the altar of his lusts. Since he never had anything to do with known prostitutes and procuresses, but by personal pains provided the materials for his pleasures, he succeeded both as a merchant and as a husband in preserving the reputation of a man free from illicit passion and deserving of all confidence.
12.
Major W., a distinguished officer, a man of honour in every respect, had in youth married a chambermaid, naturally, as one can imagine, from pure inclination. But the marriage remained barren, because the wife suffered from organic troubles; and soon her sexual powers were completely extinguished. Whilst the husband still remained virile, the wife was already an old woman, suffering from spasmodic and other affections, surrounded always by medicine-bottles and medical appliances, always ill-humoured and nagging, a true torment for the good-natured and amiable husband. The latter bears with Christian patience and inexhaustible love the ill-humour of his wife; but Nature is less pliable than his kind heart: his conjugal tenderness diminishes, and his ardent temperament seeks other outlets for the gratification of his natural sexual desires. The sick wife notices this coolness, and revenges herself by a refined cruelty. She knows that sulkiness on her part makes him ill and miserable; she therefore afflicts him with coldness of manner, and by jealousy and ill-temper she makes his life a hell. There occur horrible scenes of domestic brawling, which more than once have led the husband to attempt to end his troubles by suicide. He suffers in a threefold fashion: by the continued irritation of his healthy natural impulse, by the illnesses he contracts in gratifying that impulse, and by the sorrows of his really loved wife. He imposes upon himself a voluntary celibacy in order that he may not make her ill; but this sacrifice does not suffice, it does not make his wife gentler towards him. She demands from him, tacitly, all the ardency of the bridegroom; there is no rescue possible from this inferno. The husband surrenders himself to a quiet despair. He is faithful in his vocation; he lives only for the wife, who torments him continually. The neighbours see a very unedifying example of an extremely unhappy marriage, originally contracted as a pure love match, and none the less entailing martyrdom alike on husband and wife.
Note.—That in Vienna the conjugal conditions so graphically described in the above extracts are still much the same as formerly, and that marriage needs and marriage lies are there exceptionally painful is shown by the foundation in Vienna of a “Society for Marriage Reform,” which sent to the Assembly of German Jurists, meeting at Kiel in the beginning of September, 1906, the telegraphic request that they would undertake a revision of Austrian marriage law, since hitherto no cure had been found for unhappy marriage in Austria, no divorce was possible, and those who had obtained a judicial separation could, according to Canon Law, sue one another on account of adultery (cf. Neue Freie Presse, No. 15108, September 13, 1906). It is hardly credible, but, according to a report in the Berlin Aerzte-Correspondenz, 1907, No. 8, it is true, that the Medical Court of Honour for the town of Berlin and the province of Brandenburg, in the year of our Lord 1906, punished physicians on the ground of adultery!
Notes
155 P. Näcke, one of the most trustworthy authorities on sexual anthropology, writes as follows: “That in ancient times, before monogamy, there was polygamy, or even a state resembling promiscuity, is very probable (Westermarck notwithstanding), and can, in fact, be assumed a priori” (“Einiges zur Frauenfrage und zur sexuellen Abstinenz”—“A Contribution to the Woman’s Question and to the Problem of Sexual Abstinence”), published in the Archiv f. Kriminalanthropologie, vol. xiv., p. 52 (Hans Gross, 1903). Cf. also Lohsing’s “Zustimmung zur Annahme einer ursprünglichen Promiscuität,” ibid., vol. xvi., p. 332.
The question of sexual promiscuity has recently been further considered by P. Näcke (“Earliest Beginnings of Human Society,” in Die Umschau of August 17, 1907). He believes that the state of pure promiscuity lasted a short time only, and gave place to certain nuclei of family structure, a kind of semi-promiscuity, which, prior to the complete development of the family union, lasted much longer than the state of pure promiscuity. Still, these earliest families were merely temporary, and only later became fixed and permanent. This assumption, however, does not affect the fact of a primordial pure promiscuity. Näcke himself also recognizes promiscuity as the natural state of primitive man.
156 H. Schurtz, “Altersklassen und Männerbünde: eine Darstellung der Grundformen der Gesellschaft”—“Age Classes and Associations of Men: a Demonstration of the Fundamental Forms of Society,” p. 176 (Berlin, 1902).
157 N. Melnikow, “The Buryats of the District of Irkutsk,” published in the Transactions of the Berlin Society of Anthropology, Ethnology, and Primeval History, p. 440 (1899).
158 Marco Polo, translated by Yule, 2nd edition, vol. ii., pp. 38, 39 (London, 1875).
159 Cf. my “Contributions to the Etiology of Psychopathia Sexualis,” vol. i., pp. 165-169.
160 Cf., regarding group-marriage, the writings of Joseph Kehler, more particularly “Zur Urgeschichte der Ehe”—“The Primitive History of Marriage” (Stuttgart, 1897); “Rechtsphilosophie und Naturrecht”—“The Philosophy of Law and Natural Right,” published in Holtzendorff-Kohler’s “Encyklopädie der Rechtswissenschaft,” pp. 27-36 (Leipzig, 1902); “Die Gruppenehe”—“Group-Marriage,” in “Aus Kultur und Leben,” pp. 22-29 (Berlin, 1904); finally the chapter on “Group-Marriage” by Schurtz (op. cit.). [A quite modern instance of group-marriage was the Oneida community, “a league of two hundred persons to regard their children as ‘common.’” For an account of the Oneida experiment see Noyes, “A History of American Socialisms.”—Translator.]
161 J. J. Bachofen, “Das Mutterrecht”—“Matriarchy” (Stuttgart, 1861).
162 Ludwig Stein, “Die Anfänge der Kultur”—“The Beginnings of Civilization”—pp. 106, 107.
163 Eduard von Mayer, “Die Lebensgesetze der Kultur”—“The Vital Laws of Civilization”—p. 210.
164 G. F. W. Hegel, “Fundamental Outlines of the Philosophy of Law, or Natural Rights and Political Science in Outline,” edited by Eduard Gans, second edition, p. 218 (Berlin, 1840).
165 That is to say, it is not sufficient to replace the father-right by the mother-right, as, for example, Ruth Bré demands (“The Children of the State, or the Mother-Right?” Leipzig, 1904).
166 There is a most apposite remark in one of George Meredith’s novels. He imagines that an Oriental vizier (from a Mohammedan country) is visiting our “Christian” capital, and late one evening, after a dinner-party at a distinguished house, walks homeward by way of Piccadilly. He asks, and is told, who are the numerous ladies walking the streets at that late hour. “I perceive” said the vizier, “that monogamic society has a decent visage and a hideous rear.”—Translator.
167 M. Nordau, “The Conventional Lies of our Civilization,” pp. 263-317 (Leipzig, 1884).
168 Georg Hirth estimates the percentage of marriages of convenience as even higher—viz., 90 per cent. Cf. his “Ways to Love,” p. 607.
169 Cf. my “Contributions to the Etiology of Psychopathia Sexualis,” vol. i., pp. 165-174; vol. ii., pp. 190, 191, 208, 209, 363, 364.
170 Schopenhauer’s Collected Works, edited by E. Grisebach, vol. ii., p. 1337 (Leipzig, 1905).
171 Ernest Stiedenroth, “Psychologie zur Erklärung der Seelenerscheinungen,” pp. 224, 225 (Berlin, 1825).
172 Max Nordau, “Conventional Lies,” p. 305.
173 Cf. in this connexion the feuilleton of the Vossische Zeitung, No. 286, June 17, 1904. Jean Paul, also, was an enthusiast in theory and practice for such double love. He called it “simultaneous love.” The idea of simultaneous love has also been employed in a recently published French novel, “A la Merci de l’Heure,” by Jean Tarbel (Paris, 1907). The heroine has need of two lovers—a celebrated literary professor for head and heart, and in addition, a young physician for the gratification of her sensual needs. Contrariwise, Knut Hamsun, in “Pan,” and Guy de Maupassant in “Notre Cœur,” describe the double love of a man for a woman of the world and for a child of Nature.
174 Friederich Schleiermacher, “Philosophic and Other Writings,” vol. i., p. 473 (Berlin, 1846).
175 Cf. Eduard von Hartmann, “Philosophie des Unbewussten,” p. 205. In a French collection—“L’Amour par les Grands Écrivains,” by Julien Lemer, p. 14 (Paris, 1861)—we find the saying, “Ordinairement, lorsqu’on se marie par amour, il vient ensuite de la haine; c’est que j’ai vu de mes yeux” (“Ordinarily, when one marries for love, hate takes its place. I have seen it with my own eyes”).
176 B. Z. am Mittag, No. 210, September 7, 1906.
177 “Annales d’Hygiène Publique,” 1900, p. 340.
178 Elard H. Meyer, “Deutsche Volkskunde,” p. 166 (Strasburg, 1898).
179 Ludwig Stein, “Der Sinn des Daseins”—“The Sense of Existence,” p. 235 (Tübingen and Leipzig, 1904).
180 H. Th. Buckle, “History of Civilization in England.”
181 G. Schmoller, “Elements of General Political Economy,” vol. i., p. 250 (Leipzig, 1901).
182 § 1568 runs: “A husband or wife can sue for divorce when the wife or husband by serious disregard of the duties entailed by marriage, or by dishonourable or immoral conduct, has brought about so profound a disorder of the conjugal relationship that to the offended party the continuation of the marriage appears impossible. Gross ill-treatment is also to be regarded as a serious infringement of these duties.” It is clear that the emphasized passage is capable of manifold interpretations, and it thus compensates for the abolition of the earlier grounds for divorce based upon incompatibility of temper.
183 Taken from the newspaper Le Jour, No. 337, July 6, 1906.
184 Compare Browning’s lines, in “James Lee’s Wife”:
“How the light, light love, he has wings to fly
At suspicion of a bond.”—Translator.
185 “Die Schicksale der Frauen und die Prostitution im Zusammenhange mit dem Prinzip der Unauflösbarkeit der katholischen Ehe und besonders der österreichischen Gesetzgebung und der Philosophie des Zeitalters” (Leipzig, 1847).