tice. A
man does not try to play on the violin without seeing if his fingers are
long and flexible enough to bring out the harmonies and raise his
performance above the grade of dismal scraping to that of divine music.
What should we think of a man who should set a whole orchestra of
instruments upon playing together without the least provision or
forethought as to their chording, and then howl and tear his hair at the
result? It is not the fault of the instruments that they grate harsh
thunders together; they may each be noble and of celestial temper; but
united without regard to their nature, dire confusion is the result.
Still worse were it, if a man were supposed so stupid as to expect of
each instrument a _role_ opposed to its nature,--if he asked of the
octave-flute a bass solo, and condemned the trombone because it could
not do the work of the many-voiced violin.

"Yet just so carelessly is the work of forming a family often performed.
A man and woman come together from some affinity, some partial accord of
their nature which has inspired mutual affection. There is generally
very little careful consideration of who and what they are,--no thought
of the reciprocal influence of mutual traits,--no previous chording and
testing of the instruments which are to make lifelong harmony or
discord,--and after a short period of engagement, in which all their
mutual relations are made as opposite as possible to those which must
follow marriage, these two furnish their house and begin life together.
Ten to one, the domestic roof is supposed at once the proper refuge for
relations and friends on both sides, who also are introduced into the
interior concert without any special consideration of what is likely to
be the operation of character on character, the play of instrument with
instrument; then follow children, each of whom is a separate entity, a
separate will, a separate force in the family; and thus, with the lesser
forces of servants and dependants, a family is made up. And there is no
wonder if all these chance-assorted instruments, playing together,
sometimes make quite as much discord, as harmony. For if the husband and
wife chord, the wife's sister or husband's mother may introduce a
discord; and then again, each child of marked character introduces
another possibility of confusion. The conservative forces of human
nature are so strong and so various, that with all these drawbacks the
family state is after all the b