And both modes of feeling were then genuine, and could
co-exist in the same individual. It is not exactly a matter of glory,
but it is a fact, that, in the cultivated man of modern times, this
sentiment can be not merely unconsciously present in both its highest
and lowest stages, but may also manifest itself openly, and even
artistically. The modern man, like the man of antiquity, is in this
respect too a microcosm, which the medieval man was not and could not
be.
To begin with the morality of the novelists. They treat chiefly, as we
have said, of married women, and consequently of adultery.
The opinion mentioned above of the equality of the two sexes is of
great importance in relation to this subject. The highly developed and
cultivated woman disposes of herself with a freedom unknown in Northern
countries; and her unfaithfulness does not break up her life in the
same terrible manner, so long as no outward consequences follow from
it. The husband's claim on her fidelity has not that firm foundation
which it acquires in the North through the poetry and passion of
courtship and betrothal. After the briefest acquaintance with her
future husband, the young wife quits the convent or the paternal roof
to enter upon a world in which her character begins rapidly to develop.
The rights of the husband are for this reason conditional, and even the
man who regards them in the light of a 'ius quaesitum' thinks only of
the outward conditions of the contract, not of the affections.
Pages:
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500