girls and old men, or between aged widows and young men, would add to our confusion, and bring to our thoughts the picturesque exclamation which Shakespeare puts into the mouth of King Lear—"Fie! Fie! Fie! Pah! Pah! Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination."[1]
Marriages with Men of Sixty Years and upwards.
IN FRANCE. | IN ENGLAND.
Age of Girls. Number of | Age of Girls. Number of
Marriages.| Marriages.
15 to 20 years 94 | 15 to 20 years 2
20 " 25 " 139 | 20 " 25 " 15
25 " 30 " 176 | 25 " 30 " 32
30 " 35 " 242 | 30 " 35 " 49
—- | —-
651 | 98
III. The Future.
What will marriage and the family become in the future? For one who is not a prophet by supernatural inspiration, it is hazardous to make predictions. The future, nevertheless, is born from the womb of the past, and, after having patiently scrutinised the evolution of bygone ages, we may legitimately risk a few inductions with regard to the ages to come. Doubtless the primitive forms of marriage and the family will persist, if not for ever, as Herbert Spencer believes, at least for a very long time among certain inferior races, protected and at the same time oppressed by climates which the civilised man cannot brave with impunity. These backward prehistoric races will continue to subsist in unwholesome regions, as witnesses of a distant past, recalling to more developed races their humble origin. But with these last the form of marriage and of the family, which has incessantly been evolving, cannot evidently remain immutable in the future. The little human world knows no more repose than the cosmic environment from whence it has sprung, and which encloses it. Among
- ↑ King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6.
