of their fellow-creatures; because, through the abundance of
their own resources, their mind acquires a certain refinement, likely to
make them deem the society of ordinary persons tiresome; does it
therefore necessarily follow that the goodness and sensibility of their
hearts are blunted, and that there may not be, amid the great variety of
women, hearts and minds worthy of comprehending them, and of making it
their duty to extend a larger amount of forbearance and indulgence in
return for the glory and happiness of being the companions of these
noble beings? It is remarked, in support of the above theory, that
almost all men of genius who have married--Dante, Milton, Shakspeare,
Dryden, Byron, and many others--were unhappy. But have these observers
examined well on which side lay the cause of unhappiness? Who will say
that if Dante, instead of Gemma Donati, "the ferocious wife" (a thought
expressed by Lord Byron in his "Prophecy," evidently to appropriate it
to himself, speaking of "_the cold companion who brought him ruin for
her dowry_);" who will say that if Dante, instead of Gemma Donati, had
married his Beatrice Portinari, she would not have been the companion
and soother of his exile? that the bread of the foreigner shared with
her would not have seemed _less bitter_? and that he would not have
found it _less fatiguing to mount, leaning on her, the staircase leading
to another's dwelling_?--

"Lo scendere e il salio per l'altrin scale."--DANTE.

And can we doubt that Milton's misfortune was caused by his unhappy
choice of a wife, since almost directly after her arrival at their
conjugal home she became alarmed at her husband's literary habits and
also at the solitude and poverty reigning in the house, and finally
abandoned him after a month's trial? To speak only of England, was it
not from similar causes, or nearly so, that the amiable Shakspeare's
misfortune arose--also that of Dryden, Addison, Steele? And, indeed, the
same may be said of all the great men belonging to whatsoever age or
country.

If we were to enter into a polemic on this subject, or simply to make
conscientious researches, there would be many chances of proving, in
opposition to the axiom, that the fault of these great men lay in the
bad choice of their helpmates. In truth, if there have been a Gemma
Donati and a Milbank, we also find in ancient times a Calpurnia and a
Portia among the wives of great men; and, in modern times, wives of