, 1868-12-11
To Many or Not 10 MARI,


BlacLaoOOd, discusses the question of mar
riage in a pleasant way. We Gull a few
passages
Is life really life if one must pas, il on
the tght>rope Is existence worth haying
where it is eternaly question of balancing
-swaying to this side, and bending to that
'ls it proven that all people have voca,
tion for marriage, aud is conjugalism per Sc
certain to require those VINO, 10 attain il.
must divide between two what they had
barely found sufficient for one? These are
simple questions, which we have no need of
a Philosopher to ask or answer for US. If one
we're simply to pronounce from what appears
on the surface of life-and it is very hard
to go deeper-we should say that the single
people, especially the men, have the best of
1t. They are mOre in request among their
friends, available for more attentions, and
keep longer young than their married
brethren.
The double. barreled egotsm of marriage
spoils many good fellow and DESTROYS the
charm of macy delightful woman The
hrm, that terrible partnership, crops up at
every moment, and routs that glorious spon>
taulety, that delicious irresponsibility, we
once remembered.
L have no patience with those people who
want to marry on what it is a puzzle TO them
to live single upon. They must be moral.
torsooth at the cost of reducing some un-
happy girl to drudgery on the false pretence
for it is fase-of loving her.
why can't they let it alone ? as the great
master of common sense said of less event
ful contingency.
& have met more pleasant and companion.
able people among the single than the mars
ried but there is a can:ing notion abroad,
that marriage is a sort OF backbone for good
behavior, and so the cure must be married.
l don't know how far the theory goes, or
whether a lady's shoemaker should have
wife, but I'm sure her cofIeur ought.
Il hope we shall soon hear the last Of this
tireSome controversy; iOr if any man wishes
positively to ascertain, from his personal exN
perience, whether it be safe to marry on
GlO0 per annum, let him commit small
miSdemeanor in Ireland, and be sent to Jail
for three months. If his constitution stands
the dietary-the seven ounces OF Cruel aud
pinch Of bareiey per dIem-he may have his
bans published the day he comes out, aud
certainly there will be nothing in his ab
sorbens system to interfsre>Eith his -happia
ness.
But, it is a mistake to suppose that mar.
riage is a necessity, except to three volume
novel. L am certain that a very large num-
Der Of people are not made for that species
Of I
ed Of MOrmonism or Spirirual>wifery, nor
have the slightest sympathy with Agape,
mones. What desire to insist on is, that
our present day civilization inculcates con
jugalism 100 indiscrimlnately, and takes most
unjustihable means to support Its position.
! One of these, aud the least commendable ot
all, is to dIspsrage those who are called old
maids. have seen many a timid rider in
a hunting field jeered into riding at a fence
that cost him 'cropper' and am conviu,
ced that many women are driven into mar
riage to escape the obloquy and sarcasm of
belonging to that maligned category.
1T is no exaggeralion to say 'maligned.
| | would ask any one who has seen much of
| liie-who has, to say, been a man Of the
word-watching its ways and studying its
doings-I would ask him has he ever met in
any section Of humanity greater klndliness,
gentleness and patience than among these
same old maids Where has he found more
hearty, genial, generous natures where
sound views of life dis6gured by fewer pre-
! iudices where more thorough charity in
discussing the motives where, in one word, |
less of those very attributes by which 1t has
pleased the world to characterize this class !
| 1t is 10 part of my task to call witnesses to
what say but one will cite, because she
emneutly represented all that | have SO
feebly attempted to picture and if her gem
ius might seem to outshine the luster of her
personal qualities, it is only to those who
had not the happiness-and it was happi>
ness-of her intimacy. am talking Of Miss
Edgeworth, and ii is worth all the weight OF
the years it obliges to have metand know her.
4 will not affirm that marriage could have
spoiled such a nature, but will say it could
not have be.tered it. Nor is it small part
of the matter that at eighty she was the guild
ing spirit, the delight and the charm of that
family which derived glory from her name
and happiness from her presence
is it to a class which numbers Miss Edge |
worth and Miss Nightingale among its mem
bers that women need shame 10 belong!
Il have done. will only add that instead
of heaping ridcule on the condition of un-
married women, and, out of sheer derislon,
driving them to accept anybody-anythlng
as husbands, let us accord them all the
Difference and regard we bestOw on others
and let us not forget, in the presence OF some
.old maid whose qualities of mind and ma.
ture have charmed US, and whose traces of
beauty arc not faint, that if we do deem
mAtrimony the great prize in life, it is liv-
ing shame to our sex that such a women
should be single.
If have wandered from the text Of 'Mar-
riages on Starvation Allowance it is simply
because have not that overweening impres-
sion Of coniugalsm and would not recon-
mend any one to face beggary to attain It,
any more than would advise man to lay
out his last shilling buy ticket In
lottery