We will admit that he is not to be
reckoned in any of the numerous classes of the predestined which we
have passed in review. Let us admit that he has become imbued with the
spirit of all our maxims; that he has mastered the admirable science,
some of whose precepts we have made known; that he has married wisely,
that he knows his wife, that he is loved by her; and let us continue
the enumeration of all those general causes which might aggravate the
critical situation which we shall represent him as occupying for the
instruction of the human race.
MEDITATION VI.
OF BOARDING SCHOOLS.
If you have married a young lady whose education has been carried on
at a boarding school, there are thirty more obstacles to your
happiness, added to all those which we have already enumerated, and
you are exactly like a man who thrusts his hands into a wasp's nest.
Immediately, therefore, after the nuptial blessing has been
pronounced, without allowing yourself to be imposed upon by the
innocent ignorance, the frank graces and the modest countenance of
your wife, you ought to ponder well and faithfully follow out the
axioms and precepts which we shall develop in the second part of this
book. You should even put into practice the rigors prescribed in the
third part, by maintaining an active surveillance, a paternal
solicitude at all hours, for the very day after your marriage, perhaps
on the evening of your wedding day, there is danger in the house.
Pages:
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101