"Mental Efficiency And Other Hints to Men and Women"

I am describing what he does think.) In the second place, he will reflect that, after marriage, he could no longer expect the charming welcomes which bachelors so often receive from women; he would be done with" as a possibility, and he does not relish the prospect of being done with as a possibility.

Such considerations, all connected more or less with the loss of freedom (oh, mysterious and thrilling word!), will affect his theoretical attitude. And be it known that even the freedom to be lonely and melancholy is still freedom.

Other ideas will suggest themselves. One morning while brushing his hair he will see a gray hair, and, however young he may be, the anticipation of old age will come to him.

A solitary old age! A senility dependent for its social and domestic requirements on condescending nephews and nieces, or even more distant relations! Awful! Unthinkable! And his first movement, especially if he has read that terrible novel, "Fort comme la Mort," of De Maupassant, is to rush out into the street and propose to the first girl he encounters, in order to avoid this dreadful nightmare of a solitary old age.

But before he has got as far as the doorstep he reflects further. Suppose he marries, and after twenty years his wife dies and leaves him a widower! He will still have a solitary old age, and a vastly more tragical one than if he had remained single. Marriage is not, therefore, a sure remedy for a solitary old age; it may intensify the evil.

Children? But suppose he doesn't have any children! Suppose, there being children, they die -- what anguish! Suppose merely that they are seriously ill and recover-- what an ageing experience! Suppose they prove a disappointment -- what endless regret! Suppose they "turn out badly" (children do) -- what shame! Suppose he finally becomes dependent upon the grudging kindness of an ungrateful child -- what a supreme humiliation! All these things are occurring constantly everywhere. Suppose his wife, having loved him, ceased to love him, or suppose he ceased to love his wife! Ces choses tie se commandeni pas-- these things do not command themselves.

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