It is a question of the sanctity of marriage now, as
it was in the days of the decline of Rome. De Quincey traces her fall
to the loosening of the marriage tie. He says that few indeed, if any,
were the obligations in a proper sense _moral_ which pressed upon the
Roman. The main fountains of moral obligation had in Rome, by law or
custom, been thoroughly poisoned. Marriage had corrupted itself
through the facility of divorce, and through the consequences of that
facility (viz., levity in choosing, and fickleness in adhering to the
choice), into so exquisite a traffic of selfishness, that it could not
yield so much as a phantom model of sanctity. The relation of husband
and wife had, for all moral impressions, perished amongst the Romans.
And, although it is not quite so bad with ourselves at present, that
is what it is coming to.
"But there are two sides to every question, and the one which we must
by no means lose sight of just now is not that which shows the respects
in which we resemble the Romans, so much as the one which shows the
respects in which we differ from them.
Pages:
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309