He is either a monster or a fool.
And if in the preceding Meditation we have succeeded in proving to you
that by far the greater number of men live in the most absolute
indifference to their personal honor, in the matter of marriage, is it
reasonable to believe that any considerable number of them are
sufficiently rich, sufficiently intellectual, sufficiently penetrating
to waste, like Burchell in the _Vicar of Wakefield_, one or two years
in studying and watching the girls whom they mean to make their wives,
when they pay so little attention to them after conjugal possession
during that period of time which the English call the honeymoon, and
whose influence we shall shortly discuss?
Since, however, we have spent some time in reflecting upon this
important matter, we would observe that there are many methods of
choosing more or less successfully, even though the choice be promptly
made.
It is, for example, beyond doubt that the probabilities will be in
your favor:
I. If you have chosen a young lady whose temperament resembles that of
the women of Louisiana or the Carolinas.
To obtain reliable information concerning the temperament of a young
person, it is necessary to put into vigorous operation the system
which Gil Blas prescribes, in dealing with chambermaids, a system
employed by statesmen to discover conspiracies and to learn how the
ministers have passed the night.
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