Now this kind of sobriety is of great importance in the person with
whom we are to live constantly. Skipping, romping, rattling girls are
very amusing where all consequences are out of the question, and they
may, perhaps, ultimately become _sober_. But while you have no
certainty of this, there is a presumptive argument on the other side.
To be sure, when girls are mere children, they are expected to play and
romp _like_ children. But when they are arrived at an age which turns
their thoughts towards a situation for life; when they begin to think
of having the command of a house, however small or poor, it is time for
them to cast away, not the cheerfulness or the simplicity, but the
_levity_ of the child.

'If I could not have found a young woman,' says a certain writer, 'who
I was not sure possessed _all_ the qualities expressed by that word
_sobriety_, I should have remained a bachelor to the end of life.
Scores of gentlemen have, at different times, expressed to me their
surprise that I was "_always in spirits_; that nothing _pulled me
down_;" and the truth is, that throughout nearly forty years of
troubles, losses, and crosses, assailed all the while by numerous and
powerful enemies, and performing, at the same time, greater mental
labors than man ever before performed; all those labors requiring
mental exertion, and some of them mental exertion of the highest order,
I have never known a single hour of _real anxiety_; the troubles have
been no troubles to me; I have not known what _lowness of spirits_
meant; and have been more gay, and felt less care than any bachelor
that ever lived. "You are always in spirits!" To be sure, for why
should I not be so? Poverty, I have always set at defiance, and I
could, therefore, defy the temptations to riches; and as to _home_ and
_children_, I had taken care to provide myself with an inexhaustible
store of that "sobriety" which I so strongly recommend to others.

'This sobriety is a title to trustworthiness; and this, young man, is
the treasure that you ought to prize above all others. Miserable is the
husband who, when he crosses the threshold of his house, carries with
him doubts, and fears, and suspicions. I do not mean suspicions of the
_fidelity_ of his wife; but of her care, frugality, attention to his
interests, and to the health and morals of his children. Miserable is
the man who cannot leave all unlocked; and who is not _sure_, quite
_certain_, that all is as safe