The Nature of a crime.

UNPUBLISHED FRAGMENT OF MANUSCRIPT BY CONRAD ON "MARRIAGE"

Even to the dullest of man marrying is for the most part
an imaginative act. I mean marrying as a step in life
sanctioned by law, custom and that general consent of man-
kind which is the hall-mark of every irrational institution.
By irrational I do not mean wrong or stupid or simply noxious,
and as either of these three things despicable. On the con-
trary; marriage is august by the magnitude of the issues it
involves balancing peace and strife on the fine point of a
natural impulse refined by the need of a tangible ideal.
I am not speaking here of mere domestic peace or strife
which for people that count are a question of manners and
mode of life. And I am thinking of the peace mostly - the
peace of the soul which yearns for some sort of certitude
on this earth, the peace of the heart which yearns for con-
quest, the peace of the senses that dread deception, the
peace of the imaginative faculty which in its restless
quest of a high place of rest is spurred on by these great
desires and that great fear.

And even Edward Burden's imagination is moved by these very
desires and by that fear - or else he would not have dreamt
of marrying. I repeat marriage is an imaginative insti-
tuition. It's true that his imagination is a poor thing but
it is genuine nevertheless. That faculty of which I speak
is of one kind in all of us. The differences are only
differences of degree. Not to everyone is given that
depth of feeling, that faculty of absolute trust which will
not be deceived and the resulting masterfulness of the senses
which are the marks of a fearless lover. Fearless lovers
are rare if obstinate and sensual foos are countless as the
grains of sand by the seashore. I can imagine that correct
young man perfectly capable of setting himself deliberately
to worry a distracted girl into surrender. Lack of imagi-
nation alone can betray a man into that sort of baseness
of which some men may be proud in secret. And his lack
of imagination is great if I am to judge by his slowness
in making his choice. The dulcest creature has the in-
stinct of self-preservation. But there are men who carry
their safety within themselves.