for now in the hour of
his feebleness, a woman's love. A good long sickness has greatly
enlarged many a man's philosophy!

Still, it is not in the destiny of every man to have a wife, or to keep
her if he get one. It is not unwise, therefore to consider that state as
one of the phases of life, and to contemplate its various aspects, good
and bad, as we have the other conditions of existence. "A man unattached
and without wife," says Bruyere, "if he have any genius at all, may
raise himself above his original position, may mingle with the world of
fashion, and hold himself on a level with the highest; this is less
easy for him who is engaged; it seems as if marriage put the whole world
in their proper rank." "I have" says Burton, the melancholy, "no wife or
children, good or bad, to provide for, and am a mere spectator of other
men's fortunes and adventures."

THE ONE GRAND RESULT OF SINGLE LIFE,

so far as is generally noticeable, is selfishness. The chief lesson of
marriage is self-denial. Which is the more pleasing of the two traits?
When the bachelor views life, he sees nothing good in it, for it all
looks selfish. Being so deeply jaundiced, the eye tints everything with
yellow. At forty he is heartily sick of it all. Why? Because he has
learned that he has squeezed the orange dry. The faculties which God
gave him to be pleased with when a recipient have been worked to death.

HE HAS BEEN A RECIPIENT WITHOUT CEASE.

He has chewed on one side of his mouth all his life. The teeth on the
other side have loosened and are ready to fall out, while the overworked
molars on the other are about to run into decay. The faculties whereby
he was expected to please other people have become rudimentary, and he
can now no more fascinate other people than he can sing soprano. He
makes an effort to engage the interest of a young lady. The hollowness
of his attack at once arrests her attention. The ease with which he
speaks long sentences of admiration proclaims his long practice in the
art, and the utter lack of real meaning in them. He knows that the girl
will

LAUGH BEHIND HIS BACK,

and it irritates him, and disposes him to attribute her act to "the
falseness of her sex," when it is merely her keen intelligence in such
matters. The fact of the matter is, that though an old bachelor is
seemingly greatly smitten with nearly every young girl he sees, he does
not succeed in marrying because he is a hard man to catch. The