Page 541 sur 1391

One who deserved to be called a man of genius, a friend of my

youth, was in the habit of wearing a black ribbon on his wrist,

in order to remind him that, being liable to outbreaks of

insanity, he must not give way to the natural impulses of

affection: he died unmarried in a lunatic asylum. These two

little facts suggest the reflection that a very few persons have

done from a sense of duty what the rest of mankind ought to have

done under like circumstances, if they had allowed themselves to

think of all the misery which they were about to bring into the

world. If we could prevent such marriages without any violation

of feeling or propriety, we clearly ought; and the prohibition in

the course of time would be protected by a 'horror naturalis'

similar to that which, in all civilized ages and countries, has

prevented the marriage of near relations by blood.