and should
serve to show that an act which _may_ destroy the weak should not be
tampered with, even by the strong."

"There are old men who marry young wives, and who pay the penalty by
becoming martyrs to paralysis, softening of the brain, and driveling
idiocy."

Dr. Gardner quotes the Abbe Maury, as follows: "I hold as certain that
after fifty years of age a man of sense ought to renounce the pleasures
of love. Each time that he allows himself this gratification is _a
pellet of earth thrown upon his coffin_."

Dr. Gardner further says: "Alliances of this sort have taken place in
every epoch of humanity, from the time of the patriarchs to the present
day,--alliances repugnant to nature,--between men bordering on
decrepitude and poor young girls, who are sacrificed by their parents
for position, or who sell themselves for gold. There is in these
monstrous alliances something which we know not how to brand
sufficiently energetically, in considering the reciprocal relations
of the pair thus wrongfully united, and the lot of the children which
may result from them. Let us admit, for an instant, that the marriage
has been concluded with the full consent of the young girl, and that
no external pressure has been exerted upon her will--as is generally
the rule--it will none the less happen that reflection and experience
will tardily bring regrets, and the sharper as the evil will be without
remedy; but if compulsion, or what is often the same thing, _persuasion_,
had been employed to obtain the consent which the law demands, the
result would have been more prompt and vehement. From this moment the
common life becomes odious to the unhappy victim, and _culpable hopes_
will arise in her desolate heart, so heavy is the chain she carries.
In fact, the love of the old man becomes ridiculous and horrid to her,
and we cannot sufficiently sympathize with the unfortunate person whose
duty [?] it is to submit to it. If we think of it an instant, we shall
perceive a repulsion, such as is only inspired by the idea of incest....
So what do we oftenest observe? Either the woman violently breaks the
cursed bands, or she resigns herself to them; and then she seeks to
fill up the void in her soul by adulterous amours. Such is the somber
perspective of the sacrilegious unions which set at defiance the most
respectable instincts, the most noble desires, and the most legitimate
hopes. Such, too, are the terrible chastisements reserved for the