[ PART II]
CAUSES OF FAILURE
‘For Marriage is like Life in this, that it is a field of battle, not a bed of roses.’ —R. L. Stevenson.
‘Marriage is to me apostasy, profanation of the sanctuary of my soul, violation of my manhood, sale of my birthright, shameful surrender, ignominious capitulation, acceptance of defeat.’—Man and Superman.
‘A wise man should avoid married life, as though it were a burning pit of live coals.’—Dhammika Sutta.
[I]
THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MARRIAGE
‘Marriage is the great mistake that wipes out the smaller stupidities of Love.’ —Schopenhauer.
In one of his essays Stevenson says: ‘I am so often filled with wonder that so many marriages are passable successes, and so few come to open failure, the more so as I fail to understand the principle on which people regulate their choice.’
Out of the chaos which envelops this ‘principle’ four special motives seem to stand out, and we can therefore roughly divide the marriages that take place into five sections thus—
1. The Marriage of Passion.
2. The Marriage of Convenience.