Produced by Turgut Dincer, Christian Boissonnas and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) THE ART OF TAKING A WIFE BY PAOLO MANTEGAZZA _New Edition_ GAY AND BIRD LONDON MDCCCXCVI _All rights reserved_ TO THE IMPATIENT, WHO WISH TO MARRY TOO SOON; TO THE LIBERTINES, WHO TAKE A WIFE TOO LATE; TO THE TIMID WHO, WAVERING BETWEEN YES AND NO, END BY NOT TAKING ONE AT ALL, This Book is Dedicated BY A MAN WHO HAS ALWAYS BLESSED HIS FIRST MARRIAGE, AND HOPES TO BLESS THE SECOND; BELIEVING THIS SEXUAL CONTRACT TO BE THE LEAST EVIL ONE OF THE TIES WHICH BIND THE MAN TO THE WOMAN, IN SPITE OF ITS MANY DEFECTS AND DANGERS. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE PROLOGUE: BETWEEN SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS—TO TAKE OR NOT TO TAKE A WIFE? vii I. MARRIAGE IN MODERN SOCIETY, 1 II. SEXUAL CHOICE IN MARRIAGE—THE ART OF CHOOSING WELL, 36 III. AGE AND HEALTH, 55 IV. PHYSICAL SYMPATHY—RACE AND NATIONALITY, 95 V. THE HARMONY OF FEELINGS, 125 VI. HARMONY OF THOUGHTS, 154 VII. THE FINANCIAL QUESTION IN MARRIAGE, 171 VIII. THE INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS OF MARRIAGE, 192 IX. HELL, 224 X. PURGATORY, 251 XI. PARADISE, 283 PROLOGUE. BETWEEN SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS.—TO TAKE, OR NOT TO TAKE A WIFE? For the majority of men, and for at least thirty years of their lives, love is the strongest necessity, and governs them like a tyrant with no other curb than the wretched brake of written codes, which they do not read, and of social conventionalities, which they can easily silence by employing hypocrisy’s mask; an hypocrisy, let it be well understood, well dressed, well curled, and well educated. How can one satisfy this greatest of all human needs? _By buying love, at so much an hour, so much a month, or so much a year._ _By gaining it by seduction or violence._ _By taking a wife._