The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-07-02
From Rayper's Weekly.
MarrIaxe and Health.

The subject OF our last article on
health-small families-is very proper
ly followed by Reconsideration a of health
as influenced by marriage.
Marriage is the natural condition Of
adult life. No man who fails TO enter
this condition at this period can be con-
sldered as comprising all the relations
for which his Creator designed him-in
other words, he is not complete man.
There is sdeIect-radical defect. He was
designed to be the head OF family, and
as the family state is the very basis of
society, his failure is in vital point,
and we do him no wrong in pronounc-
ing him to be incompetent as a man.
We once heard learned divine, in
preaching on the family state on a
Thanksgiving-day, assert this incom-
pleteness of the bachelor; and he,
among other illustrations, said, that we
might as well call man destitute of
| some limb a whole and perfect man, as
to pronounce the bachelor TO be such.
at the risk of being deemed ungal-
liant, we must say that the same view
applies to the female sex.
The single state being then the abb
normal and unnatural condition, 1t is,
as general rule, unfavorable to health
and longevity. That this is true OF
longevity is demonstrated by the
fact stated by Hufeland, that in
the lists OF individuals who have lived
| to a great age there are no unmarried
persons. That IL is true in regard to
| health cannot be SO definitely proved,
and yet the fact just stated and the OBJ
servations of physician$ quite satisfac-
torily establish its truth.
The reasons thHt marriage is favora-
BILE to health and longevity are very
readily seen. We will notice some OF
them.
OfAdults the married alone exper-
fence to the full all those genial and
satisfying influences which are properly
| included in the idea of home. The un-
married may, when fortunately situa-
ted, experience them in part, but It is
only in part, even under the most IA
! yorabIe circumstances. They may en-
| deavor to enter into the feelings of pa
rents in helping to care for their child
rem both In health and in sickness, and
| in doing SO they partake of some ofthe
elevated and sweet Joys of home; but
still they fail to get at the very pene-
tralia where cluster tue most sacred and
deep affections that belong to the mar
ried state. 1t is but few even of the
gentler sex among the unmarried that
really do enter in this limited degree
into the knowledge of the sweetest
ministries included in the full idea of
! home, and fewer still of the other sex
/ have this knowledgeand its consequent
en1oyments. H..
which bind those Joined in wedlock to-
gether are alike stronger, closer, and
more multiform than those OF any 9TH
| er relation, not even excepting that of
parent and child. The expression OF
our Saviour on this point "they twain
shall be one hesh"-is very significant.
It betokens something more than a
mutual contract which can be broken
| for slight reasons, as our legislators
will have II, in opposition to the ex=
press teachings OF the Bible. 1t Is a
only one ohense-the trampling under
foot at once of both its physical and
moral bonds. Plainly union SO close,
| and binding both body and soul, should
neither be lightly entered upon nor
| lightly set aside.
The mutual attraction existing be-
| tween the sexes, which is the basis OF
| this union, is of compound character.
What is termed sometimes physical
love enters largely into 1t. The abuse
| OF this, degrading 1t to mere sensuality,
| is the source of some of the worst OF
both moral and physical evils; while,
on the other hand, its proper indulgence
has connected with It something of the
highest and most ennobling virtues OF
which human nature is capHble-those
which belong to the home and the fam
lily state. -..
There is in that which draws the sexes
together in true counubial love some
thing undesirable and not easily un-
\ derstood. No correspondence, no de-
soription of qualities of person and
l character, however satisfactory all may