her smiles, his brightest day; her kiss, the guardian of his innocence; her industry, his surest wealth; her economy, his safest steward; her lips, his faithful counselors; her bosom, his softest pillow; her prayers, his ablest advocate at Heaven's court." Therefore, reader, think of some familiar picture of old bachelorhood or maidenhood life with which you are acquainted, and then look on this picture of married life: Dainty Mabel, full of grace, With her bright and smiling face, Well I know the hand of Time Every joy and every care; Thanks for thee, my darling love.' The fire burns low, the lights are out A happy husband, happy wife." Jeremy Taylor says: "Marriage has in it less of beauty, but more safety, than the single life. It hath not more ease, but less danger; it is more merry, and more sad; it is fuller of sorrows, and fuller of joys; it lies under more burdens, but it is supported by all the strength of love and charity, and those burdens are delightful. Marriage is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities and churches, and heaven itself. Celibacy, like the fly in the heart of the apple, dwells in perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined, and dies in singularity; but marriage, like the useful bee, builds a house and gathers sweetness from every flower; labors and unites into societies and republics; sends out colonies, and feeds the world with delicacies; obeys the king and keeps order, and exercises many virtues, and promotes the interests of mankind. 'Tis that state of good to which God hath designed the present condition of the world." Pope thus speaks of the pleasures of married life: "Oh, happy state! when souls each other draw, When love is liberty, and nature law; All then is full, possessing and possessed, No craving void left aching in the breast; E'en thought meets thought, ere from the lips it part, "Live in a palace without woman," says Douglas Jerrold; "'tis but a place to shiver in. Whereas, take off the house-top, break every window, make the doors creak, the chimneys smoke; give free entry to the sun, wind, rain-still will a wife make the hovel habitable; nay, bring the little household gods crowding about the fireplace." Sir Thomas Bernard says: "Of all temporal and worldly enjoyments, the marriage union with a congenial mind, animating a pleasing frame, is by far the greatest." Johnson writes: "Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship, and there can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity; and he must expect to be wretched who pays to beauty, riches, or politeness, that regard which only virtue and piety can claim. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy no pleasures." * * "I have noticed," says Washington Irving, "that a married man falling into misfortune, is more apt to retrieve his situation in the world than a single one, chiefly because his spirits are softened and relieved by domestic endearments, and self-respect kept alive by finding that, although all abroad be darkness and humiliation, yet still there is a little world of love at home, of which he is monarch; whereas, a single man is apt to run to waste and self-neglect, to fall to ruin, like a deserted mansion, for want of inhabitants. Those disasters which break down the spirit of man, and prostrate him in the dust, seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character, that at times it approaches to sublimity." And so we will sum up the whole matter by saying that, "The man who weds a loving wife Shall bear up under all; But he that finds an evil mate, No good can come within his gate, His cup is filled with gall." HUSBAND AND WIFE. "Know then, As wives owe a duty-so do men. Men must be like the branch and bark to trees, -WILKINS. UTUAL happiness can only be enjoyed by mutual forbearance, mutual comfort, mutual strength, mutual guidance, mutual trust; common principles, common duties, common burdens, common aims, common hopes, common joys. Above all things, don't go abroad to speak of each other's frailties; a husband or a wife ought not to speak of the other's faults to any but themselves. Says quaint old Fuller: "Jars concealed are half reconciled, while, if generally known, 'tis a double task to stop the breach at home, and men's mouths abroad." Hitches will occur, but many bad results may be avoided by a resolution, well kept on both sides, to cloak and forgive offenses; to say, with Milton. |