It will here be
possible, of course, merely to look at them as briefly as is compatible
with the making of a right approach to the subject now before us, which
is the girl's choice of a husband.
But in right priority to the question of choice, we may for convenience
discuss first the marriage age. The choice at one age may not be the
choice at another, and in any case the question of the marriage age is
so important for the individual woman, and so immensely effective in
determining the composition of any society, that we cannot study it too
carefully.
XIV
THE MARRIAGE AGE FOR GIRLS
Let us clearly understand, in the first place, that in this chapter we
discuss principles and averages, and that, supposing our conclusions be
accepted as true, they cannot for a moment be quoted as decisive in
their bearing upon special cases. The impartial reader will not suppose
that such folly is contemplated, but those who discuss and advocate new
views very soon learn that many readers are not impartial, and that for
one cause or another they do not fail of misrepresentation. This is not
a case, then, of "science laying down the law," and ordering this
individual to marry at this age, and that not to marry at another; and
yet though this rigorous individual application of our principles is
absurd, they are none the less worth formulating, if it be possible.
The question before us is very far from simple: it is not in the nature
of human problems to be simple, the individual and society being so
immeasurably complex.
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