Should She Have Left Him? — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

IO SHOULD SHE HAVE LEFT HIM? you in this station of life, the highest in the land, and you have duties and obligations in consequence. It is only within the present generation that we have received that recognition from abroad which is our due. Now, we are received by the nobility of other countries upon equal ground. This recogni- tion has only been obtained by great caution, inter- marriage, and the observance of well fixed rules— principally the latter, Entrance to our circle has been made difficult, and only after the right to enter has been fully established. The most frequent effort has been made through marriage, so the rule was made that the members of the older families should marry among themselves; this has kept the blood pure. Then it has been made ? rule that wealth should marry wealth. In England they not only have the advantage of us in titles which distinctly place the rank, but they have also the law of primogenitureship by which fortunes are kept intact. Here the whole tendency is to division of wealth. And so, in order to keep fortunes together, we have been compelled to concentration by marriage. An aristocracy is necessary to the making of good society; and an aristocracy cannot be maintained without wealth. We, of the aristoc- racy, must do our duty to the station of life in which we find ourselves, for in society properly con- stituted there must always be a standard of morals, culture, and refinement, and that standard can only be maintained by the best people. And, therefore, the best people must seek only those matrimonial GOMMGIOO cS (GO)