Van Gogh on his brother's upcoming marriage: "Its because hes in Holland, where hes getting married one of these days. Now, while not denying the advantages of a marriage in the very least, once it has been done and one is quietly set up in ones home, the funereal pomp of the reception &c., the lamentable congratulations of two families (even civilized) at the same time, not to mention the fortuitous appearances in those pharmacists jars where antediluvian civil or religious magistrates sit my word isnt there good reason to pity the poor unfortunate obliged to present himself armed with the requisite papers in the places where, with a ferocity unequalled by the cruellest cannibals, youre married alive on the low heat of the aforementioned funereal receptions.