Every day some 370,000 babies are born worldwide. Of those born on July 22, 2013, 369,999 went unnoticed outside their immediate circles. The exception was a royal prince, third in line to the British throne. His first photos show him blissfully unaware of the vast excitement he was causing. He'll come to know of it in time. What he'll think of it we will not presume to guess. We'll know soon enough, if the course of his life gets anything like the coverage his birth did.

The commotion seems oddly out of keeping with the modern temperament, which professes to despise celebrity based on blood rather than talent or achievement. There must be something in us that longs for tradition even as we shred it. Very little is left of that once very wide sphere. "Good riddance," say most people most of the time. Then something like a royal birth comes along to expose a hidden aspect of our collective personality. Deep down, maybe we're all closet traditionalists.

How else has the institution of marriage survived all the powerful modern challenges to it? Marriage rites are at least as old as civilization. No culture is without some form of them. Even our own culture — with its rampant individualism, sexual liberation, instant gratifications, ceaseless change, unappeasable restlessness, eager readiness to flout all received wisdom — has a place in it, large though shrinking, for marriage.