d her home;
when a mother anticipated her wants and soothed her little cares, when
her brothers and sisters grew from merry playmates, to loving, trustful
friends; from Christmas gatherings and romps, the summer festivals in
bower or garden; from the secure backgrounds of her childhood, and
girlhood, and maidenhood, looks out into the dark and unilluminated
future away from all that, and yet unterrified, undaunted, leans her
fair cheek upon her lover's breast, and whispers--"Dear heart! I cannot
see, but I believe. The past was beautiful, but the future I can
trust--with thee!"

--_Hunt._

1284

_Advice on Marriage._--An Athenian who was hesitating whether to give
his daughter in marriage to a man of worth with a small fortune, or to a
rich man who had no other recommendation, went to consult Themistocles
on the subject. "I would bestow my daughter," said Themistocles, "upon a
man without money, rather than upon money without a man."

--_Arvine._

1285

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

1286

ON A WEDDING DAY.

Cling closer, closer, life to life,
Cling closer, heart to heart;
The time will come, my own wed wife,
When you and I must part!
Let nothing break our band but Death,
For in the world above
'Tis the breaker Death that soldereth
Our ring of wedded love.

--_G. Massie._

1287

A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.

A man of experience, declares that men, like plants, adapt themselves to
conditions. To illustrate his theory, he told of two men, one of whom
said to the other, at a pleasantly critical period:

"Do you think two can live as cheaply as one?"

"Before my marriage I thought they could," was the guarded reply.

"And afterward?" anxiously.

"Afterward I found they had to."

1288

MARRIAGE,--CHOICE IN.

_Boswell_: "Pray, sir, do you not suppose that there are fifty women in
the world, with any one of whom a man may be as happy, as with any one
woman in particular?" _Johnson_: "Ay, sir, fifty thousand." _Boswell_:
"Then, sir, you are not of opinion with some who imagine that certain
men and certain women are made for each other, and that they cannot be
happy if they miss their counterparts." _Johnson_: "To be sure not, sir.
I believe marriages would in general