he is inadequate to the duties of maternity,
_and it is not right to lay such burdens upon her_. Self-preservation is
the first law of nature, which all ought to respect. The woman may be
able to discharge the duties of a loving wife and companion, when she
cannot fulfill those of child-bearing. If the husband love his wife as
he ought, he will resign all the pleasure necessary to secure her
exemption from the condition of maternity. It seems to us, that it is a
great wickedness, unpardonable even, to be so reckless of consequences,
and so devoid of all feeling, as to expose a frail, feeble, affectionate
woman to those perils which almost insure her death. To enforce
pregnancy under such circumstances is a crime. Every true man,
therefore, should rather practice self-control and forbearance, than
entail on his wife such certain misery, if not danger to life.

Undoubtedly, the trial is great, but if a sacrifice be required, let the
husband forbear the gratification of passions which will assuredly be
the means of developing in his delicate wife symptoms that may speedily
hurry her into a premature grave. Before she has recovered from the
effects of bearing, nursing, and rearing one child, ere she has regained
proper tone and vigor of body and mind, she is unexpectedly overtaken,
_surprised_ by the manifestation of symptoms which again indicate
pregnancy. Children thus begotten are not apt to be hardy and
long-lived. From the love that parents feel for their posterity, from
their wishes for their success, from their hopes that they may be useful
from every consideration for their future well-being, let them exercise
precaution and forbearance, until the wife becomes sufficiently healthy
and enduring to bequeath her own vital stamina to the child she bears.

From what has been said on this subject, it behooves the prudent husband
to weigh well the injurious, nay criminal results which may follow his
lust. Let him not endanger the health, and it may be the life, of his
loving and confiding wife through a lack of self-denial. Let him
altogether refrain, rather than be the means of untold misery and,
perhaps, the destruction of the person demanding his most cherished love
and protection. On so important a subject, we feel we should commit an
unpardonable wrong were we not to speak thus plainly and openly. An
opportunity has been afforded us, which it would be reprehensible to
neglect. We shall indeed feel we have been amply r