The working people, the peasants, the labourers, these marry young; but the competition there is just the same--just as difficult, and only a little rougher.

So it may be said that every man has a struggle of some kind in order to marry, and that there is a kind of fight or contest for the possession of every woman worth having.

Taking this view of Western society not only in England but throughout all Europe, you will easily be able to see why the Western public have reason to be more interested in literature which treats of love than in any other kind of literature.
But although the conditions that I have been describing are about the same in all Western countries, the tone of the literature which deals with love is not at all the same.

There are very great differences.

In prose they are much more serious than in poetry; because in all countries a man is allowed, by public opinion, more freedom in verse than in prose.