28 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



marriage tie is esteemed in Southern Europe, some 

 writers have concluded that a hot climate stimulates 

 the passions ; ^ but it is impossible to maintain such 

 a theory in face of the fact that the Red Indians of 

 North America and the Esquimaux of Greenland, 

 both living in extremely cold latitudes, are as licentious 

 as Frenchmen, Spaniards, or Italians. The drama is 

 a good index to the views of a people upon certain 

 questions of morality. Authors may choose their 

 heroines upon other principles than they choose their 

 wives, but their popularity necessarily depends upon 

 the fidelity with which they reflect the inner senti- 

 ment of the society of their day. In France, where 

 the mariage de convenanee prevails, the stage has 

 never ceased to rail at matrimony, and to exhibit the 

 freer relations of the sexes in a favourable light; 

 whereas in England, where the dowry system is all 

 but unknown, the dramatist has usually regarded 

 marriage with a benevolent eye.^ 



1 This fallacy is an old one. It appears to have been first put 

 forward by Montesquieu. Lecky, who has been singularly unfortu- 

 nate in some of his speculations, adopts it in his History of European 

 Morals. 



2 Legouve in his Histoire Morale des Femmes exposes the evils of 

 the mariage de convenanee as practised in France. The time of the 

 engagement, he observes, is shortened as much as possible lest the 

 young people should get to know and dislike each other. They are 



