ll bear me out. But matrimony is more than this. It
spite of the hard matter-of-fact, sceptical, and therefore sensual
character of the passing day, will it not be confessed that the union of
man and woman, as husband and wife, is the greatest earthly need, and is
followed by the greatest earthly good? Unhappy marriages there may be;
imprudent ones there may be; but such are not the rule; and very properly
our legislators have agreed to give relief in such cases. "Nature never
did betray the soul that loved her;" and nature tells men and women to
marry. Just as the young man is entering upon life--just as he comes to
independence and man's estate--just as the crisis of his being is to be
solved, and it is to be seen whether he decide with the good, and the
great, and the true, or whether he sink and be lost for ever, Matrimony
gives him ballast and a right impulse. Of course it can't make of a fool
a philosopher; but it can save a fool from being foolish. War with
nature and she takes a sure revenge. Tell a young man not to have an
attachment that is virtuous, and he will have one that is vicious.
Virtuous love--the honest love of a man for the woman he is about to
marry, gives him an anchor for his heart; something pure and beautiful
for which to labour and live; and the woman, what a purple light it sheds
upon her path; it makes life for her no day-dream; no idle hour; no
painted shadow; no passing show; but something real, earnest, worthy of
her heart and head. But most of us are cowards and dare not think so; we
lack grace; we are of little faith; our inward eye is dim and dark. The
modern young lady must marry in style; the modern young gentleman marries
a fortune. But in the meanwhile the girl grows into an old maid, and the
youth takes chambers--ogles at nursery-maids and becomes a man about
town--a man whom it is dangerous to ask into your house, for his business
is intrigue. The world might have had a happy couple; instead, it gets a
woman fretful, nervous, fanciful, a plague to all around her. He becomes
a sceptic in all virtue; a corrupter of the youth of both sexes; a curse
in whatever domestic circle he penetrates. Even worse may result. She
may be deceived, and may die of a broken heart. He may rush from one
folly to another; associate only with the vicious and depraved; bring
disgrace and sorrow on himself and all around; and sink into an early
grave. Our great cities show what becomes of me