person, mind, and manners, she would be poor indeed; and would probably
render those around her miserable. I speak now generally. There may be
exceptions to this, as to other general rules. A dislike of children,
even in men, is an unfavorable omen; in woman it is insupportable; for
it is grossly unnatural. To a susceptible, intelligent, virtuous mind,
I can scarcely conceive of a worse situation in this world or any
other, than to be chained for life to a person who hates children. You
can purchase, if you have the pecuniary means, almost every thing but
_maternal love_. This no gold can buy. Wo to the female who is doomed
to drag out a miserable existence with a husband who 'can't bear
children;' but thrice miserable is the doom of him who has a wife and a
family of children, but whose children have no _mother_! If there be
orphans any where in the wide world, they are these.[13]

The more I reflect on the four last mentioned traits of female
character, the more they rise in my estimation, eclipsing all others;
unless perhaps, a good temper.

It is said that after every precaution, the choice of a wife is like
buying a ticket in a lottery. If we were absolutely deaf and blind in
the selection, and were so from necessity, the maxim might be just. But
this is not so. We shut our eyes and stop our ears voluntarily, and
then complain of the imperfection of our means of forming a judgment.
In truth we impeach the goodness of Him who was the author of the
_institution_.

No young man is worthy of a wife who has not sense enough to determine,
even after a few interviews, what the bent of a lady's mind
is;--whether she listens with most pleasure to conversation which is
wholly unimproving, or whether she gladly turns from it, when an
opportunity offers, to subjects which are above the petty chit-chat or
common but fashionable scandal of the day; and above all, avoids
_retailing_ it. He knows, or _may_ know, without a 'seven years'
acquaintance, whether she spends a part of her leisure time in reading,
or whether the whole is spent in dressing, visiting, or conversing
about plays, actors, theatres, &c. And if she reads a part of the time,
the fault must be his own, if he does not know whether she relishes any
thing but the latest novel, or the most light--not to say
empty--periodical. Let it be remembered, then, by every young man that
the fault is his own, if he do not give himself time, before he forms
an engagement that