Note 1 — Chapter LVI · (Part II) ON MARRIAGE

Not probably—but certainly. With love there, one has no taste for any water but that of the beloved fount. So far fidelity is natural.

In the case of marriage without love, in less than two years the water of this fountain becomes bitter. Now the desire for water always exists in nature. Habits may conquer nature, but only when it can be conquered in an instant: the Indian wife who burns herself (October 21st, 1821), after the death of the old husband whom she hated; the European girl who barbarously murders the innocent child to whom she has just given life. But for a very high wall the monks would soon leave the monastery.