Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/143

 miles, or so, a trifle; and, as we have seen, the population was dense. Each district had, accordingly, an institution for higher education, resorted to by some five hundred young people, for about four hours, on six days in the week.

In these institutions, whether by local teachers, or by lectures delivered by the highest accepted authorities on special subjects, the young continued their education, concurrently with other duties, till marriage. The earliest legal age for this was twenty-five for men, and twenty-three for women. The young couple usually started on a two-months' wedding journey,—either a rapid tour of the world, or, more commonly, the young wife visited, in company with her husband, the places where he had resided, and of which she had heard so much from him during the period of enforced expatriation, of which we shall afterwards hear. On their return, it was usual for both to spend six months, at least, at some great university, to receive the finishing touches to their education.

The universities were open only during the winter season, from the beginning of November till May. For that reason, almost all marriages took place about the beginning of September, that and the following month being also regarded as the most pleasant for travelling, This wedding journey was performed, for the most part, in curricle, the railway being employed only for long distances.

The journey was all the more delightful from the fact, that, on the one hand, the ride now, for the first time, tasted the delights of distant travel and unrestrained locomotion, the one privilege denied to girls; on the other,