Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers
Notice the words: The man of distinction to whom this book is dedicated. Need I say: "You are that man."—THE AUTHOR.
The woman who may be induced by the title of this book to open it, can save herself the trouble; she has already read the work without knowing it. A man, however malicious he may possibly be, can never say about a woman as much good or as much evil as they themselves think. If, in spite of this notice, a woman will persist in reading the volume, she ought to be prevented by delicacy from despising the author, from the very moment that he, forfeiting the praise which most artists welcome, has in a certain way engraved on the title page of his book the prudent inscription written on the portal of certain establishments: Ladies must not enter.
"Marriage is not an institution of nature. The family in the east isentirely different from the family in the west. Man is the servant ofnature, and the institutions of society are grafts, not spontaneousgrowths of nature. Laws are made to suit manners, and manners vary.
"Marriage must therefore undergo the gradual development towardsperfection to which all human affairs submit."
These words, pronounced in the presence of the Conseil d'Etat byNapoleon during the discussion of the civil code, produced a profoundimpression upon the author of this book; and perhaps unconsciously hereceived the suggestion of this work, which he now presents to thepublic. And indeed at the period during which, while still in hisyouth, he studied French law, the word ADULTERY made a singularimpression upon him. Taking, as it did, a prominent place in the code,this word never occurred to his mind without conjuring up its mournfultrain of consequences. Tears, shame, hatred, terror, secret crime,bloody wars, families without a head, and social misery rose like asudden line of phantoms before him when he read the solemn wordADULTERY! Later on, when he became acquainted with the most cultivatedcircles of society, the author perceived that the rigor of marriagelaws was very generally modified by adultery. He found that the numberof unhappy homes was larger than that of happy marriages. In fact, hewas the first to notice that of all human sciences that which relatesto marriage was the least progressive. But this was the observation ofa young man; and with him, as with so many others, this thought, likea pebble flung into the bosom of a lake, was lost in the abyss of histumultuous thoughts. Nevertheless, in spite of himself the author wascompelled to investigate, and eventually there was gathered within hismind, little by little, a swarm of conclusions, more or less just, onthe subject of married life. Works like the present one are formed inthe mind of the author with as much mystery as that with whichtruffles grow on the scented plains of Perigord. Out of the primitiveand holy horror which adultery caused him and the investigation whic