“TO BE A MAN

in a true sense,” says Michelet, “is, in the first place, and above all things, to have a wife.”  “It is in vain for a man to be born fortunate,” says Dacier, “if he be unfortunate in his marriage.”  “When it shall please God to bring thee to man’s estate,” says Sir Philip Sidney, “use great providence and circumspection in choosing thy wife.  For from thence will spring all thy future good or evil; and it is an action of life, like unto a stratagem of war; wherein a man can err but once!” “We are not very much to blame for our bad marriages,” says Ralph Waldo Emerson;

“WE LIVE AMID HALLUCINATIONS,

and this especial trap is laid to trip up our feet with, and all are tripped up, first or last.  But the mighty mother nature, who had been so sly with us, as if she felt she owed us some indemnity, insinuates into the Pandora box of marriage some deep and serious benefits and some great joys.”  “It is a mistake to consider marriage merely as a scheme of happiness,” says Chapin; “it is also a bond of service.  It is the most ancient form of that social ministration which God has ordained for human beings, and which is symbolized by all the relations of nature.”  “Marriage” says Selden, “is a desperate thing;

THE FROGS IN AESOP

were extremely wise; they had a great mind to some water, but they would not leap into the well, because they could not get out again.”  Why were they wise?  They were not wise at all.  I have seen frogs in wells who are more contented than they would be outside.  “Men are April when they woo, December when they wed,” says Shakspeare; but he also says that “maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives,” so it is an even tilt between two forms of human nature.  “If idleness be the root of all evil,” says Vanbruch, “then matrimony is good for something, for it sets many a poor woman to work.”  “In the opinion of the world,” says Madame Swetchine, “marriage ends all; as it does in a comedy;

THE TRUTH IS PRECISELY THE REVERSE.

It begins all.  So they say of death, ‘It is the end of all things.’  Yes, just as much as marriage!” “Humble wedlock,” says St. Augustine, “is far better than proud virginity.”  “Never marry but for love,” says William Penn, in his will; “but see that thou lovest what is lovely!” “Strong are the instincts with which God has guarded the sacredness of marriage,” says Maria McIntosh.  We cannot bear this remark too constantly in mind.  You would not dare shut off your supply of water, because you know you will need it.  But you are sometimes tempted to shut off your supplies of love; and men do sometimes do it, and

AFTERWARD GO MAD