STEPHANI DE MALESCOT, I.C., ON MARRIAGE: A BOOK.

ON THE DESCRIPTION OF WEDDINGS AND BETROTHALS. CHAPTER I.

A decorative drop cap Q features a small figure standing in a landscape, perhaps representing a scholar or a judge.
SINCE in the ignorant multitude there is variety and inconstancy, and a frequent change of opinion—just as of storms—a Cicero in his Oration for his House. no strait, no Euripus a strait in Greece known for turbulent currents, has as many movements, as many and as varied agitations of waves, as the opinion of the people has perturbations and tides. One day missed, or one night interposed, often disturbs everything; and a small breath of rumor sometimes changes an entire opinion; often also, without any open cause, something happens other than what we think, so that sometimes the people themselves admire that it happened so, as if they had not done it themselves. For there is no counsel in the mob, b Cicero in the Oration for Murena. no reason, no discrimination, no diligence, and wise men have always thought that the things the people have done should be endured, not always praised. c Cicero in the Oration for Plancus. Therefore, when in past years I held a question in the public auditorium of Civil Law at Bourges regarding Marriage against the Civil Law