are living as
a married man while you might, probably, live with more strictly selfish
personal comfort up to thirty-five as a single man; but you are,

AFTER THIRTY-FIVE,

immensely better off than the single man, and you will, besides, always
be given a better place in society than he, because society likes to see
every member in its ranks doing his duty like a man and helping to bear
the burdens as well as reap the benefits which our system of living
deals out to those who participate in it.

IF YOU HAVE THE CONSUMPTION

and the young lady also have that disease, consult the physicians of
your families. A very learned man, in a series of papers in the
_Atlantic Monthly_, some years ago, refused to forbid such marriages
entirely. Put yourselves especially under the care of your doctors, and
follow their advice implicitly. If the young lady, alone, is
consumptive, extend your engagement and wait for events. If you yourself
are thus tainted with disease, I have little hesitation in saying that
it is not manly to get married until you are entirely out of the reach
of pecuniary want without your labor, and even then there are other
considerations of nearly equal importance which should lead you to
frequent conferences with your family doctor.

YOU THUS SEE THAT "LIFE IS REAL,

and life is earnest." If you are healthy, thank God for it, and sing
merrily while you build the nest which will hold the mate in warmth and
comfort. After the harbor of refuge is built, the ship will find a
pleasant and ever-welcome anchorage during the big storms outside.

Take the daughter of a good mother.

[Illustration]

MARRIAGE.

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage-bell.--Byron.

Quotation of this verse is made, not because it
celebrated a marriage--it, rather, commemorated the frightful carnage of
Waterloo--- but because it very faithfully represents the fashionable
beginning of wedded life, to which it alludes. There seems to be in
woman an inherited, instinctive desire for this kind of thing at her
marriage. It is cruel to deny her, therefore man usually goes through
with it like a martyr. My prejudices are so heartily enlisted against
"blow-outs" of this kind that I feel the compunctions of an honest
judge at sitt