It must always be remembered that even if the physician has given you a
clean bill of health, you are still unfit for marriage unless you are
willing to go more than halfway in adjusting your life to "his" or
"hers." Lovers generally feel sure that they can do this, but have you
proved it in your treatment of parents, brothers, sisters, and friends?
If you are free from transmissible disease and innate defects, and if
you are capable of having children, it is still unwise for you to marry
unless you display good evidence of the qualities which make a happy
home and insure the right training of children. Darwin once said that
the trouble with mankind is not lack of ability, but failure to use the
abilities that we possess. Even if it is not wise for you to marry now,
perhaps you can take yourself by the scruff of the neck and make
yourself fit.

If you are fit, the next question is, "Is it wise for me to marry?" For
the vast majority of people the answer is emphatically "Yes" both for
your own sake and that of society as a whole. For most people the
married state is happier and more useful than the unmarried state.
Biologically the two sexes are meant to live together. Long experience
has proved that the only permanently happy way of living together is as
husband and wife. If the marriage is of the right kind, both the man and
the woman become happier, healthier, more adaptable, more interested in
the community, and, in many cases, better workers. Marriage is
unquestionably one of the best schools and one of the best health
resorts. It often has a wonderful effect in steadying people's nerves,
provided the partner is wise as well as loving.

The probability that any given marriage is wise is greatly increased
where the two young people have reasonably similar ideals and habits
and are sufficiently intelligent so that each can enjoy the interests of
the other. It is increased still more when both the man and the woman
realize that marriage is a comparatively hollow affair unless entered
into with the purpose of having a family. Few experiences have greater
value than the sacrifices which parents must make if they are to create
a real home. The making of such a home brings out the best that is in
people. Hence from the purely personal standpoint marriage is a
priceless advantage.

There is a social as well as a personal side to marriage. The unstable
conditions of the present century have made some people believe that th