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to decree marital felicity and to make marital infelicity a transgression of this decree. It is plain that the judges and law-givers proceeded only from the theological and priestly conception described above, which makes a spook of marriage, and as such sanctifies it without regard to the people for whom the relationship exists. Though the marriage bond may have united two beings who are to each other as water to fire, they must get along with each other — thus the priest and the law-giver decree; and when the consequences of the impossibility to agree come to light, when the water hisses over the edge and the fire sends its sparks beyond the limits, then the judge rushes in between them with his club and punishes the water for being with the fire, and the fire for being with the water. The punishment, which consists in the disappointment of the married couple, in their grief, their discord, their unhappiness, and their material disadvantages, does not seem to the priest a sufficient revenge for an unfortunate choice; no, he must create still another punishment, and see to it that the misfortune is prolonged as much as possible and is not forgotten for a lifetime.