Man, as a member of a political community, may make marriage laws to suit that community—laws to suit that community—laws "de vinculo matrimonii" and laws "de mensa et thoro", decrees "nisi prius" and decrees absolute; but
Law can no more bind the affections than it can bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades. And yet, at bottom,
Beneath all municipal and parochial regulations, a great and cosmic law does govern the relations of the sexes; and
The lightest whim of the lightest lady has a definite, perhaps a cosmic, fount and origin.
* * *
A man can never know too much. Perhaps a woman can. And
It is a question how far a man admires a woman who knows too much. For,
If there is nothing a man can teach a woman, not even of the ways of love, the man is apt to be chagrined. Besides,
Too much knowledge is inimical to romance.
* * *