LOVE AND MARRIAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 18 December 1920, Page 3

LOVE AND MARRIAGE

(By. Georges Clemenceau, lately Premier of France). From a book of short stories written in earlier days by “The Tiger” and published to-day in an English translation, “Surprises of Life." (London, Eveleigh Nash, 7s 6d). *.* * t * The question of love and marriage lias manifestly the most obsessing interest for humankind. Presumably -dissatisfied with the actual experiences of life, men, women, old people and young, seek in fiction, in dreams, the unattainable or the unattained. Life passes. Those among us who, on the brink of the grave,'question themselves honestly, recognise that more chances of hapoffered them than they, fickle or wavering, made shift to grasp. • * * * • To protect the weak—that is to say, the woman and the child—against tho caprice of tile strong, is assuredly the duty of society. But who will claim that marriage, as instituted b.v law and practised by custom, performs that office, and does not oftener than not result in the triumph, whether just or unjust, of man ? * * * • * There are happy marriages, whatever novelists say. There are married couples who lovq.each other, and live happily together to the end of their days. There are also unhappy unions. “1 alone know where my shoe pinches,” said a celebrated American when congratulated upon his happy home. Men or women, great numbers can say the same.

* * st * # “Life,” said the wise Mokoubnmba, “is a procession of delights. As soon .as one has disappeared, another has started upon its way. It may be a more or less long time in arriving, but no one will, begrudge waiting for it, and the waiting is often the best a man gets out of it.” I know of no greater error than to suppose that extraordinary adventures are what make life interesting. Jf one looks closely one finds that the truly marvellous things are those that happen to us every day, and that duels, dagger thrusts, even automobile accidents, with accompanying hatred, jealousy, betrayed loee, and treachery are in reality the vulgar incidents in the enormous drama of our common life from birth to death. **. * * * We cannot deny that signs of altruism’born pricipally of love, manifest themselves on all sides in the animal world. The defence of the young is the commonest instance of it. The courtship of the male is also marked by exhibitions of generosity, even as it is on the boulevard. When a cock finds a worm, does he not summon his entire harem and magnificently toss to them the savoury morsel P * * *' * * *

Everywhere in the world people are horn, they live and they die without knowing exactly why, and without arriving at any reasonable explanation of the strange events. They seem, however, quite untroubled by the difficulty of the problem. WFien they come into the world their first business is to lament. All their life-long they lament over the labour involved in preserving their lives, but when it com.es to dying they cannot make up their minds to it without lamentation! • * * * * Humanity means weakness.