Look at New York society. I am only doing what the leaders of finance and fashion do boldly. It is just here that it seems to me our legislators might improve our laws. It is impossible for a man to absolutely know a woman's disposition or a woman a man's, until after living together as husband and wife. For the surprises and disillusionments which can- not be remedied in a nine years' effort, let there be a possible reward in a later marriage.
Many people marry at twenty, and repent at twenty-five.
To doom them to a half century of wretchedness is to defeat life's highest purposes. When mature people, after many years of mar- riage, become estranged, it is usually through the intervention of a third party, and not through the disillusionary process which comes to younger couples. Let the mistaken young have another trial at happiness. Let the mature, to whom life should teach the great lessons of self-control and discretion, learn to employ these virtues, and avert the disasters they so often invite. How to prevent such disasters would be an excel- lent subject for a series of sermons by our leading clergymen.