to exist, or society cannot be sustained; and because in
proportion as the ends of the Creator are answered by its
establishment, just in the same proportion does the happiness of
society rise or fall. It points out the condition of society in this
respect as accurately as a thermometer shows the temperature of the
surrounding atmosphere. I might even go farther, and say, that in
proportion as the original and real ends of marriage are answered, do
the interests of religion also rise or sink.[11]

This institution is peculiarly interesting from the fact that it
involves so many items of human happiness. We often speak of the value
of _friendship_. What friendship like that which results from a happy
union of the sexes? We talk of _education_. What school so favorable to
improvement as the domestic circle may be rendered? Whether we consider
education in a physical, mental or moral point of view, all its plans
are imperfect without this. No man or woman is, as a general rule,
fully prepared for the humblest sphere of action on earth, without the
advantages which are peculiar to this institution. Nor has any man done
his whole duty to God, who has left this subject out of consideration.

It has sometimes been said, and with much truth, that 'no unmarried
person was ever thoroughly and completely educated.' It appears to me
that were we to consider the intellectual and physical departments of
education, merely, this would be true; but how much more so when we
take in morals? Parents,--teachers,--what are they? Their labors are
indeed of infinite value, in themselves considered; but it is only in a
state of matrimony, it is only when we are called to the discharge of
those multiplied duties which are involved in the endearing relations
of husband, wife, parent and guardian, that our characters are fully
tested and established. Late in life as these relations commence, the
circumstances which they involve are so peculiar that they modify the
character of the parties much more than has usually been considered.

I am fond, therefore, of contemplating the married state as a
school;--not merely for a short term, but for _life_;--not one whose
teachers are liable to be changed once or twice a year to the great
disadvantage of all who are concerned, but whose instructors are as
permanent as the school itself. It is true, that like other schools, it
may result in the formation of bad character; but in proportion to its
power to