The art of taking a wife

THE ART OF TAKING A WIFE
BY PAOLO MANTEGAZZA
New Edition
GAY AND BIRD LONDON MDCCCXCVI
All rights reserved
TO THE IMPATIENT, WHO WISH TO MARRY TOO SOON; TO THE LIBERTINES, WHO TAKE A WIFE TOO LATE; TO THE TIMID WHO, WAVERING BETWEEN YES AND NO, END BY NOT TAKING ONE AT ALL, This Book is Dedicated BY A MAN WHO HAS ALWAYS BLESSED HIS FIRST MARRIAGE, AND HOPES TO BLESS THE SECOND; BELIEVING THIS SEXUAL CONTRACT TO BE THE LEAST EVIL ONE OF THE TIES WHICH BIND THE MAN TO THE WOMAN, IN SPITE OF ITS MANY DEFECTS AND DANGERS.


BETWEEN SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.—TO TAKE, OR NOT TO TAKE A WIFE?
For the majority of men, and for at least thirty years of their lives, love is the strongest necessity, and governs them like a tyrant with no other curb than the wretched brake of written codes, which they do not read, and of social conventionalities, which they can easily silence by employing hypocrisy’s mask; an hypocrisy, let it be well understood, well dressed, well curled, and well educated.
How can one satisfy this greatest of all human needs?