- itive examination. Let us get rid of the fault of past ages.
With us, let the race be ever to the swift, and victory always to the strong. And let us always be racing, so that the swift and strong shall ever be known among us. But what, then, for those who are not swift, not strong? Væ victis! Let them go to the wall. They can hew wood, probably; or, at any rate, draw water."
The thing in society which Trollope apparently finds
most open to ironic treatment is the commercializing of
marriage. In one place this takes the form of sage advice.[1]
"There is no doubt but that the privilege of matrimony offers
opportunities to money loving young men which ought not to be
lightly abused. Too many young men marry without giving
any consideration to the matter whatever. * * * A man
can be young but once, and, except in cases of a special interposition
of Providence, can marry but once. The chance,
once thrown away, may be said to be irrecoverable. * * *
Half that trouble, half that care, a tithe of that circumspection
would, in early youth, have probably secured to them the enduring
comforts of a wife's wealth. * * * There is no road
to wealth so easy and respectable as that of matrimony; that
is, of course, provided that the aspirant declines the slow course
of honest work."
However, in default of golden attractions, a wife may
have other assets. Griselda Grantly had neither houses
nor land, neither title nor position. But Lord Dumbello
had all these, and needed only a lay figure for lovely clothes
to grace his establishment; the more icily regular and splendidly
null, the better.[2]
"But a handsome woman at the head of your table, who
knows how to dress and how to sit, and how to get in and out
of her carriage—who will not disgrace her lord by her ignorance,
