There are many things of which the beginning is better than the end. Take, for example, the beginning of a bad habit. How much worse, in that case, is the end than the beginning. In business undertakings it is often the case that the enterprise begins with bright prospects before it, everything cheering and hopeful, but ends in disaster, perhaps in bankruptcy. We might specify many other examples.
Marriage begins, O, how hopeful.
You cannot find words to express the delights of the young couple when they are first united in matrimony, looking forward with all the skies above them cheering them on. But, how often the end is worse than the beginning, ending in divorce, or suicide, or both, and sometimes in murder. You can scarcely count the number of things in human experience the end of which is worse than the beginning. Often the whole life, beginning with wealth, health, friends and brightest prospects, ends in disgrace. The beginning to most of you is very pleasant.