to simulate a life-long
love--that is hard. For

Love is a thing unique and unalterable (in spite of its various alloys);
clip the coin, and it will not pass current. For

Ideal matrimony is founded on a mono-metallic basis: no amount of silver
will be accepted for gold. And yet,

How often M loves and N accepts the love! Poor M! Also (in the long run),
poor N!

That, indeed, is a happy marriage where M gives and wants just what N
wants and gives: where M and N just want each other. For

Give and take is the rule of a community of two, as it is of a community
of ten thousand;

The ideal (and probably impossible) industrial community is that in which
demand and supply are in exact equipoise. The same holds good in
matrimony.

In wedlock, a virtuous, has probably less force than a vicious, example.
That is to say,

A frivolous spouse is more apt to drag the couple down than is a serious
spouse apt to lead the couple up. And

Many a mate there is (both masculine and feminine) feels like a pack-mule
treading a precipitous pass.

* * *

Of every Audrey her Touchstone should be able proudly to say, "A poor. .
. . Thing, Sir, but mine own". In other words,

The homely violet deserves as tender cherishing as the rare exotic.

* * *

What portion of himself or herself any one complicated physical and
psychological human being really and truly 'conveys' to another by means
of the simple contract known as the "plighted troth" or that of a larger
deed called the called the "solemnization of matrimony", is a riddle
difficult of solution; and as to how much one may claim on the strength
of one or other of these indentures, that is a more difficult problem
still.

In no amatorial contract, probably, is it possible to include or to
enumerate all the hereditaments, messuages, or appurtenances, involved.
Certainly

How great so ever the community of interest, M and N remain for ever M
and N.

Is there not always something in the "eternal feminine" which cannot
quite coalesce with the ephemeral masculine? Probably,

Trust your wife with your purse, and seven times out of ten it will grow
heavy.

* * *

Many a woman, by man, is accepted at her face value.

Many a man, by woman, is taken on trust. It is difficult to tell whether

More bad debts are contracted by giving credit than by taking at face
value. For

The promissory note of marriage is undated and unendorsed. But

Children act as collater