The wife
need not be unhappy. Tactless, masterful women will fail, but no one is
more easily led, particularly in the way he should not go, than a
neuropath.
A man with definite views of his own value will not be successful foil for
"mother-in-lawing", nor remain quiet under the interference of relatives,
who should remember that well-meaning intentions do not justify meddling
actions.
Many a neuropath led a useful life and gained success in a profession,
solely because his wife tactfully kept him in the path, watched his health,
prevented him frittering away his gifts in many pursuits or useless
repining, and made home a real haven.
When the yolk seems unbearably heavy, the wife should remember her husband
has to bear the primary, she only the reflected misery, for the limitations
neuropathy puts on every activity and ambition, social and professional,
are frightfully depressing.
In spite of his peevishness her husband may be trying hard to minimize his
defects and be a reasonable, helpful companion.
"Judge not the working of his brain,
And of his heart thou can'st not see;
What looks to thy dim eyes a stain
In God's pure light may only be
A scar brought from some well-fought field,
Where thou would'st only faint and yield."
Magnify his virtues and be tenderly charitable to his many frailties, for
he is "not as other men" and too well he knows it. Love at its best is so
complex that it easily goes awry, but death will one day dissolve all its
complexity, and when, maybe after "many a weary mile"
"The voice of him I loved is still,
The restless brain is quiet,
The troubled heart has ceased to beat
And the tainted blood to riot"--
it will comfort you to reflect that you did your duty and, to best the of
your ability, fulfilled your solemn pledge to love and honour him.
To quote George Eliot:
"What greater reward can thou desire than the proud consciousness that
you have strengthened him in all labour, comforted him in all sorrow,
ministered to him in all pain, and been with him in silent but
unspeakably holy memories at the moment of eternal parting?"
Surely, none!
We have considered the mournful case of a wife with a neuropathic husband,
and must now say a few words about the truly distressing fate of a husband
afflicted with a neuropathic wife, for neuropathy in its unpleasant
consequences to others is far worse in woman than in man.
A man is at work
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