ht for the girls. Marriage was
never designed for children. It is for men and women. It is good for men
and women; but it does not follow from this that it is good for
children. It would not be good even if children knew how to marry
wisely. They are both physically and mentally incapacitated for so
solemn and important a relation. They are immature in body and mind, in
heart and head. Their judgments are unsound. Their affections are not to
be trusted. They are children in every sense of the word, and can only
make children's work of married life. The wisest and best in early adult
life can be none too well prepared for the great duties of married
life--how can children be prepared? It is impossible. One of the
greatest evils of our time is the too prevalent custom of entering early
into the Marriage relations. Children make bad selections of companions.
In nine cases out of ten they choose differently from what they would a
few years later. They have no fixed characters. They do not know what
their opinions will be. Their tastes are not formed. Their aims in life
are undetermined. What they were made for and what they live for they
have scarcely asked. The arguments against early Marriages are many. I
have not time to enumerate them or to show their force. I have never
heard of but one argument in favor of early marriages. That is founded
in the false idea of marrying in mutual ignorance of each other. It is
said the characters of the parties are more pliable in early youth, so
that they will assimilate to each other the more readily. But if they
are not already assimilated they ought not to marry. If each has got to
give up his character to live in peace, it is a proof that they are
wrongly matched. Those really fitted for each other find their happiness
in the harmony of each other's characters. Their two characters blend
together like concordant sounds, or two streams of running water. The
secret of true Marriage is in mutuality of character, harmony of
sentiment and action, congeniality of spirit. Without this unity there
can be no true Marriage; no real happiness or utility in the married
life.

In all true Marriages the twain become one; one in feeling, aim, and
spirit, one in reason, sentiment, and love. And when this does not exist
before Marriage, it can not reasonably be looked for after. That this
harmony shall be perfect we can not expect, because there are no perfect
characters in this world, and no two p