e exalted than that which followed
marriage. We can then say that the optimism created by sexual union
cemented by true love rests on the normal accomplishment of the object
of life. I cannot too often repeat that work in common, especially
social work, on the part of the conjoints, is necessary for their
happiness to be complete, and to survive in the one who remains after
the decease of the other.

=Jealousy.=--The worst irradiation, or rather the worst reaction of
contrast of love, which we have inherited from our animal ancestors,
and that which is the most deeply rooted, is _jealousy_. Jealousy is a
heritage of animals and barbarism; that is what I would say to all
those who, in the name of offended honor, would grant it rights and
even place it on a pedestal. It is ten times better for a woman to
marry an unfaithful than a jealous husband. From the phylogenetic
point of view, jealousy originates in the struggle for the possession
of woman, at a period when right depended only on brute force. Cunning
and violence contended with each other, and when the conqueror was in
possession of a female, he had to guard her jealously to prevent her
being abducted. Furious combats ensued. As soon as an unaccustomed
approach, a look or anything else awakened the least suspicion of the
presence of a rival, the male was tormented with a continual and
instinctive feeling of defiance and distrust, often increased by the
remembrance of the sadness of former defeats and the impotent rage
which followed.

The results of male jealousy in the history of marriage are truly
incredible. I may mention the iron girdles with locks--the so-called
girdles of chastity--which we still see in certain museums, which the
knights of the Middle Ages put on their wives when they set off to the
wars, in order to appease their jealousy. Many savage peoples do not
content themselves with severely punishing adultery in woman, even by
death, but even simple conversations with a strange man. Jealousy
transforms marriage into a hell. It is often exalted in man to the
point of a mania for persecution, to which it is analogous. It is also
a very common symptom of alcoholism. Then the life of the unfortunate
woman who is the object of it becomes a continual martyrdom. Perpetual
suspicion accompanied by insults, threats and violent words, and even
homicide may be the result of this atrocious passion.

Even in its more moderate and normal form, jealousy is a tor