ly ambition which attends marriages, and which may therefore be
supposed to stimulate them,--how much space the house with two rooms in
humble life, and the country-seat and carriages in higher life, occupy
in the mind of bride or bridegroom.--He must observe whether conjugal
infidelity excites horror and rage, or whether it is so much a matter of
course as that no jealousy interferes to mar the arrangements of mutual
convenience.--He must mark whether women are made absolutely the
property of their husbands, in mind and in estate; or whether the wife
is treated more or less professedly as an equal party in the
agreement.--He must observe whether there is an excluded class, victims
to their own superstition or to a false social obligation, wandering
about to disturb by their jealousy or licentiousness those whose lot is
happier.--He must observe whether there are domestic arrangements for
home enjoyments, or whether all is planned on the supposition of
pleasure lying abroad; whether the reliance is on books, gardens, and
play with children, or on the opera, parties, the ale-house, or dances
on the green.--He must mark whether the ladies are occupied with their
household cares in the morning, and the society of their husbands in the
evening, or with embroidery and looking out of balconies; with receiving
company all day, or gadding abroad; with the library or the nursery;
with lovers or with children.--In each country, called civilized, he
will meet with almost all these varieties: but in each there is such a
prevailing character in the aspect of domestic life, that intelligent
observation will enable him to decide, without much danger of mistake,
as to whether marriage is merely an arrangement of convenience, in
accordance with low morals, or a sacred institution, commanding the
reverence and affection of a virtuous people. No high degree of this
sanctity can be looked for till that moderation is attained which,
during the prevalence of asceticism and its opposite, is reached only by
a few. That it yet exists nowhere as the characteristic of any
society,--that all the blessings of domestic life are not yet open to
all, so as to preclude the danger of any one encroaching on his
neighbour,--is but too evident to the travelled observer. He can only
mark the degree of approximation to this state of high morals wherever
he goes.

The traveller everywhere finds woman treated as the inferior party in a
compact in which both pa