settle once for all the character of our companionship: we ought publicly to disavow the vows of lovers, and retuse matrimony to them, for the very reason that we ought to treat matrimony in a far more serious light; so that in the very cases in which it has hitherto been contracted, it would usually forsooth not be contracted. Are not most marriages such that a third person, as witness, seems an undesirable interloper? And just this third is hardly ever wanting, it is the child, the witness, nay more, the scapegoat of matrimony.
152
Formula of oath.—"If I am telling a lie, I will no longer claim the title of an honourable man, and everybody may tell me so to my face." This formula I should recommend in place of the judicial oath and usual invocation of God: it is stronger. There is no reason for the pions even to oppose it: for as soon as the customary oath will begin to lack in adequate usefulness, the pious will have to consult their entechism, which prescribes—“Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
153
A malcontent.—This is one of the ancient braves" ; he is angry at civilisation, because he believes that it aims at making all good things—honours, treasues, fair women, —accessible even to cowards,
