The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1904-11-05
Meredlth,s Marriaae ln,eryieyy.


Following is the full text of George
Eeredith's interview with a New York
newspaper on limited marriage:
at is impossible to write fully and
completely on the subject. Everything
which ought to be said has to be cut
In half. AS a result, I myself am, pos
ltively, sometimes accused Of being
obscure.
Marriage is SO difficult, its modern
you find two educated people ready
and willing for it nothing should be
put In their way. The fault at the
bottom Of the business Is that most
women are so ~uneducate6, so unready.
Men too often want a slave, and often
think that they have got one, not be-
cause the woman has not often got
more sense than her husband, but be-
cause she is inarticulate, not educated
enough to give expression to her real
ideas and feelings.
81 remember a man who asked a
SlAl W A10llJ ~ ~ 6liI WAO
liked him in a way, but disliked GER
tain portions of his character, said
No. He asked her again and again,
and she said No. but could give no
reason and express one of her real
feelings. Therefore, when she had
said No a certain number of times,
and could think of nothing new to say,
she married him. Fear of the world
kept them together afterward, but IL
you could look into the heart Of a girl
like that Iater!-if you could lift the
veil from a thousand such households
and see into the hearts of the women
there!
at is a question to my mind wbeth-
er a young girl married, say at IS, ut
terly ignorant of life, knowing little,
as such a girl would, of the man she is
marrying, or of any other man, or Of
the world at all, should be condemned
to live with him for the rest Of her
life. She falls out of sympathy with
him, say, has no common taste with
him, nothing to share with him, no
real communication with him except
a physical one. The life is nearly in
go on wit hit from habit or because
the world terrorizes them.
Certainly, however, n day these
present conditions of marriage will be
changed. Marriage will be allowed
for a certain period, say ten years, or
well, l do not want to specify any
particular time. The State will see
that sufficient money is put by during
that time to provide for and educate
children: perhaps the State will take
Of this fund.
There will be a devil of an uproar
before such a change can be made.
1t will be a great shock, but look back
and see what shocks there have been,
and what changes have nevertheless
taken place in this marriage business
in the past.
"The difficulty is to make English
people face such a problem. They
want to live under discipline more
than any nation in the world. They
look ahead-especially the gov.
people. And you must have
it is more than
you can hope-to get English people
to admit the bare name of philosophy
their discussion of such a ques-
ton. Again and again, notably in
criticism of America, you see
how the English people will persist in
regarding any new trait as a sign Of
disease. Yet it is a sign Of health.
"a correspondence about marriage,
Ike the present one, does nothing but
good. The subject is kept in too
much darkness. Air it! Air it! Moth.
ng can do more good than that, and
very glad if any words of mine car
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