Some do not scratch their heads, but decide resolutely on the great step and leap.
A difficult and perilous leap in which but few reach the other side unscathed. The majority of these intrepid individuals fall into the middle of the stream, which carries them away in its turbid and rough waters; others plunge directly into the mud up to the body and are fixed there, without being able to get out, a ridicule to others, a desperation to themselves.
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In that garden of Gethsemane, where all men drink of the cup of doubt, in that garden of perplexity which we ought to leave with a yes or no and turn to the right or left, knowing that one path leads to happiness, the other to desperation, without knowing, however, which of the two ways leads whither; in that garden, I say, my little book ought to serve as a guide to resolve one of the most difficult problems of marriage.
And I, who have arrogated to myself this right of counsel, will tell with a loud voice those who do care for my advice, my fundamental and organic precept on which all the other minor points must rest.
Marriage between an old man and a young woman may lead to happiness, if inspired on both sides by love.
Less surely will it lead to the same end if the love that leads them to the altar is all on one side.
It nearly always leads to unhappiness and ruin if the man is induced by sensuality, or the woman by the desire of riches or by ambition.
And as this third case is the most common, I will explain at once why those terrible arithmetical combinations are so fruitful in domestic misery, adultery, and let us say crime, including those which the code does not regard.
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