ten
years' standing, is scarcely in the heyday of her charm's. And the
same rule will apply with equal force to the other sex; for, after the
first prime of life, bachelors decay and grow old much faster than
married men.

The rich are qualified for marriage before the poor. This is owing to
the superiority of their aliment; for very nutritious food, and the
constant use of wines, coffee, etc., greatly assists in developing the
organs of reproduction; whereas the food generally made use of among
the peasantry of most countries--as vegetables, corn, milk,
etc.--retards their growth. Owing to this difference of diet, the
daughter of a man of wealth, who keeps a good table, will be as
adequate to certain duties of married life at eighteen as the daughter
of a humble peasant at twenty-one. Singular as it may seem, it is none
the less true, that love novels, amorous conversations, playing parlor
games for kisses, voluptuous pictures, waltzing, and, in fact, all
things having a tendency to create desire, assist in promoting puberty
and preparing young persons for early marriage. Those who reach this
estate, however, by artificial means and much before the natural
period will have to suffer for it in after life.

The female who marries before the completion of her womanhood--that
is, before her puberty is established--will cease to grow and probably
become pale and delicate, the more especially if she become pregnant
soon after marriage. A person who is thus circumstanced will also be
liable to abortions and painful deliveries.

MARRIAGE, UNLESS

under very peculiar circumstances, should not take place until two or
three years after the age of puberty. Many instances could be cited of
the injurious effects resulting from not observing this rule. The case
of the son of Napoleon I. is a notable instance, who, at the age of
fifteen or sixteen, began his career of sexual indulgence, which ended
his life at the early age of twenty-one years. He was an amiable,
inoffensive, and studious youth, beloved by his grandfather and the
whole Austrian court; and though the son of the most energetic man
that modern times has produced, yet, from his effeminate life, he
scarcely attracted the least public attention.

Let me, therefore, advise the male reader to keep his desires in
leading-strings until he is at least twenty-one, and the female not to
enter the pale of wedlock until she is past her eighteenth