[14]. Thus Bebel in his book on Woman speaks of “the idle and luxurious life of so many women in the upper classes, the nervous stimulant afforded by exquisite perfumes, the over-dosing with poetry, music, the stage—which is regarded as the chief means of education, and is the chief occupation, of a sex already suffering from hypertrophy of nerves and sensibility.”
[15]. See “Appendix.”
[16]. It is curious that the early Church Service had “Till death us depart,” but in 1661 this was altered to “Till death us do part.”
[17]. See R. F. Burton’s Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah, chap. xxiv. He says, however, “As far as my limited observations go polyandry is the only state of society in which jealousy and quarrels about the sex are the exception and not the rule of life!”
[18]. See “Appendix.”
[19]. Perhaps one of the most sombre and inscrutable of these natural tragedies lies, for Woman, in the fact that the man to whom she first surrenders her body often acquires for her (whatever his character may be) so profound and inalienable a claim upon her heart. While, either for man or woman, it is almost impossible to thoroughly understand their own nature, or that of others, till they have had sex-experience, it happens so that in the case of woman the experience which should thus give the power of choice is frequently the very one which seals her destiny. It reveals to her, as at a glance, the tragedy of a life-time which lies before her, and yet which she cannot do other than accept.
[20]. See note on the Primitive Group-marriage, infra.
[21]. Letourneau (“Evolution of Marriage,” p. 173) mentions also among the inferior races who have adopted Monogamy the Veddahs of Ceylon, the Bochimans of S. Africa, and the Kurnails of Australia.
[22]. See Remarks on the Early Star and Sex Worships, infra.
[23]. Perhaps this accounts for the feeling, which so many have experienced, that a great love, even though not apparently returned, justifies itself, and has its fruition in its own time and its own way.