Human Physiology. 309 



great constancy and persistency of affection this is a fascinating 

 theory, and such love and consequent marriage may accord 

 with individual idiosyncrasies ; but I have seen no reason to 

 believe that any considerable number are constituted for such 

 exclusive fidelity. It seems more probable that for each indi- 

 vidual there must be many persons, perhaps great numbers, 

 suitable for conjugal union. In a large society, with freedom 

 of choice, few men or women find any difficulty in getting 

 congenial partners. Love may follow marriage, as it is said to 

 do in most cases in countries where matches are made by the 

 parents. Even in England there is more management among 

 the middle and upper classes than young people imagine. 

 Those who are considered suitable for each other are thrown 

 together, and matches are made by match-makers, who exist in 

 every grade of society. 



Is love necessary to marriage ? I cannot see that any man 

 is justified in marrying a woman he does not love or that a 

 woman can be truly joined to a man except in such a love as 

 husband and wife promise to have for each other till death do 

 them part. But even where love exists at the beginning it does 

 not always last; and if mutual love were the essence and neces- 

 sary condition of marriage, when it ceased on either side the 

 marriage would be null and void. But the law does not so regard 

 it. There are those who believe that love alone can justify the 

 most intimate relation of the sexes. Without mutual love, they 

 say, marriage is but legalised prostitution. They would justify 

 a husband in denying conjugal rights to his wife, or a wife in 

 refusing herself to her husband, if either ceased to love the 

 other. If mutual love be the sole justification of sexual union 

 if it be false, unnatural, abhorrent, where such love does not exist, 

 then the cessation of love on the part of either would be the 

 end of marriage a divorce, or at least a separation. But the 

 interests of children, families, and society, as it is now constitu- 

 ted, do not permit of divorce for sentimental grievances. The 



