onal spirit was still in full vigor in
Japan a few years ago, and it kept the industry and art of that
country up to a remarkably high standard. The traditional spirit is
most favorable to professional skill, because, under its influence,
the apprentice learns thoroughly, whereas under other influences he
often learns very imperfectly. The inferiority of English painting to
French (considered technically) has been due to the prevalence of a
traditional spirit in the French school which was almost entirely
absent from our own.

PART VII.

_WOMEN AND MARRIAGE._

LETTER I.

TO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN OF INTELLECTUAL TASTES, WHO, WITHOUT HAVING AS YET
ANY PARTICULAR LADY IN VIEW, HAD EXPRESSED, IN A GENERAL WAY, HIS
DETERMINATION TO GET MARRIED.

How ignorant we all are about marriage--People wrong in their
estimates of the marriages of others--Effects of marriage on the
intellectual life--Two courses open--A wife who would not interfere
with elevated pursuits--A wife capable of understanding them--Madame
Ingres--Difference in the education of the sexes--Difficulty of
educating a wife.

The subject of marriage is one concerning which neither I nor anybody
else can have more than an infinitesimally small atom of knowledge. Each
of us knows how his or her own marriage has turned out; but that, in
comparison with a knowledge of marriage generally, is like a single
plant in comparison with the flora of the globe. The utmost experience
on this subject to be found in this country extends to about three
trials or experiments. A man may become twice a widower, and then marry
a third time, but it may be easily shown that the variety of his
experience is more than counterbalanced by its incompleteness in each
instance. For the experiment to be conclusive even as to the wisdom of
one decision, it must extend over half a lifetime. A true marriage is
not a mere temporary arrangement, and although a young couple are said
to be married as soon as the lady has changed her name, the truth is
that the real marriage is a long slow intergrowth, like that of two
trees planted quite close together in the forest.

The subject of marriage generally is one of which men know less than
they know of any other subject of universal interest. People are almost
always wrong in their estimates of the marriages of others, and the best
proof how little we know the real tastes and needs of those with whom