by marriage, or peopled without it.«
    »How the world is to be peopled, returned Nekayah, is not my care, and needs
not be yours. I see no danger that the present generation should omit to leave
successors behind them: we are not now inquiring for the world, but for
ourselves.«
 

                                  Chapter XXIX

                        The debate on marriage continued

»The good of the whole, says Rasselas, is the same with the good of all its
parts. If marriage be best for mankind it must be evidently best for
individuals, or a permanent and necessary duty must be the cause of evil, and
some must be inevitably sacrificed to the convenience of others. In the estimate
which you have made of the two states, it appears that the incommodities of a
single life are, in a great measure, necessary and certain, but those of the
conjugal state accidental and avoidable.
    I cannot forbear to flatter myself that prudence and benevolence will make
marriage happy. The general folly of mankind is the cause of general complaint.
What can be expected but disappointment and repentance from a choice made in the
immaturity of youth, in the ardour of desire, without judgment, without
foresight, without inquiry after conformity of opinions, similarity of manners,
rectitude of judgment, or purity of sentiment.
    Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden meeting by
chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate
civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert
attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are
apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and
discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear
out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.
    From those early marriages proceeds likewise the rivalry of parents and
children: the son is eager to enjoy the world before the father is willing to
forsake it, and there is hardly room at once for two generations. The daughter
begins to bloom before the mother can be content to fade, and neither can
forbear to wish for the absence of the other.
    Surely all these evils may be avoided by that deliberation and delay which
prudence prescribes to irrevocable choice. In the variety and jollity of
youthful pleasures life may be well enough supported without the help of a
partner. Longer time will increase experience, and wider views will allow better
opportunities of inquiry and selection: one advantage, at least, will be
certain; the parents will be visibly older than their children.«
    »What reason cannot collect, said Nekayah, and what experiment