"A modern man," said Dr. Cyrus Pym, "must, if he be thoughtful, approach the problem of marriage with some caution. Marriage is a stage -- doubtless a suitable stage -- in the long advance of mankind towards a goal which we cannot as yet conceive; which we are not, perhaps, as yet fitted even to desire. What, gentlemen, is the ethical position of marriage? Have we outlived it?"
"Outlived it?" broke out Moon; "why, nobody's ever survived it! Look at all the people married since Adam and Eve -- and all as dead as mutton."
"This is no doubt an inter-pellation joc'lar in its character," said Dr. Pym frigidly. "I cannot tell what may be Mr. Moon's matured and ethical view of marriage --"
"I can tell," said Michael savagely, out of the gloom. "Marriage is a duel to the death, which no man of honour should decline."
-Manalive (1912)
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