The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1869-07-22
From s'Onee Month
REECnER ON EARLY MARRIAGE.

panion in their selfdenying toll, as wher
they first enter the battle for their owl
support. Eearly marriages are perma
nent morahGes, and deferred marriage.
are temptations to wickedness. And vel
every year 1t becomes more and more diff
fcult. concurrent with the reiguing ideas
OF society, for young men to enter upon
that matrimonial state which is the proper
guard of their virtue, as well as the source
Of their courage and enterprise. The
battle of life is almost always at the be-
ginning. There it is that a man needs
wediock. But wicked and ridiculous
pubic seat nent puts a man who is in
society, or out ofsociety, for that matter
largely on the ground of condition, ami
not OF disposition and character The
man that has means wherewith ne can
vlslbly live amply is in good society. as a
general rule. The man that has virtue
and sterling manliness, but has nothing
| wlthal external to show, is not usually
considered in good society. Ambitious
young men will not, therefore, marry
until they can meet their expenses: but
that is dcferring for years and years the
indispensable virtue. Society is bad
where two cannot live cheaper than one !;
and young men are under bad influences
who, when in the morning OF life, aud
better fitted than at any later period to
! grow together with one who is their equal
and mate, are declared from marrying,
through scores Of years, from mere pru-
dental considerations, and the heart and
life are sacrificed to the pocket They
are tempted to substitute ambition for
love, when at last, over the ashes and ex-
plrlng embers of their early romance,
they select their wife. Its SAID that men
who wait till they are forty or fofty-five
years of age, select prudently Alas for
the wife who was not first sweetheart
Prudence Is good, but is prudence servant
or queen? Prudence is good. but what is
prudence? 1t is the dry calculation of the
head leagued with the pocket! Is there
no prudence in taste, nor prudence in the
inspiration of a generous love Is there
no prudence in the faith by which, band
ed, two young persons go down into the
struggle OF life, saying, Come veal come
woe, come storm, come calm, love is a
match Tor circumstances, and we will be
all to each otherl" Woe be to that So
clety In which the customs and manners
OF the times extend beyond the period
OF romance and affection the wedding.
You have adjourned the most important
secular act of a mans life. You have
adjourned it out of Eden into the wilder
ness! The girl, next infected land even
women fallJ with the public spirit, too
often waits to be wooed by those who can
place her again, in the very beginning of
her welded life, where she was when she
was broken off as branch from the pa
rental tree. But graft should always
be wiling to be graft, and wait till it
can make Its own top by legitimate grow
ing. And woe is the day when every girl
says, L Will not marry until my husband
IN the beginning has as much as my
father had at the end of his life" For
she-what is she? Who was it that Ju-
plter won In shower of gold? Whoever
1t was, that is the type. She whose heart
is won by abundance she who is brought
into matrlmony by house and land she
who marrles for gentecl wealth-she it is
that jupiter seduced by gold For all
wedlock is adultrous in which it is not
the heart that inspires marriage. Noble
Is that young spirit which, seeing, and
loving, and choosing, and silently bidding
her choice, Is won and chosen, and giving
herself freely, romantically, if you viii
God be thanked for the romance) goes
down to the level of her husbands
nothlngness and poverty, that she and he
may, with willing hands, from the bot
tom build up their estate. Blessed is the
woman who sees that in going down she
Is going up, and that it is the losing of
life that saves 1t. Blessed is the woman
who carries with her into married life all
that she learned in the refinement of her
fathers family; who proves that she is a
woman in this; that gentleness and
praise and abundance, and luxury even,
| ministered to the better parts of her ma
ture, and prepared her to go forth and
minister earnestly and permanently in the
midst Of difficulties. Thousands there
are who, when once they are called, and
know their master, Love, go cheerfully
out with the young MAJ and take part
aud lot with him. Oh that young men
would trust them more, and prove them
better, and see if this is not SO How
noble a thing it is to see the cultured, the
polished aad the refined 60 down to the
very beginning Of things, led by love: fed
| by love, and at last rewarded by love
Live together alone, if you have to go
into the desert tor 1t, and feed on herbs
| Abhor SCdom and Gomorrah- or board
ing-houscs Men sometimes speak Of the
! meagre and pinched fare. These are I'M
! NO4 llly VI iiOllCc. II Is NOT THESE. IL Is
that men learn self.indulgence there.
Men learn there not to be house holders.
! And all that various discipline, all that
ministration Of care, and all that drill Of
contrivance, all that social independence,
| all that subtle atmosphere, Understandable
and unanalyzable, which belongs to the
solitary household, they miss No man
| and woman can make husband and wife,
! q, l, l
the pattern of their fathers, who begin
and continue their married life in this
hot-bed style Of existence. And yet they
are unwilling to take house that they
can afford and they cannot afford to take
because furniture is so dear, and virtue is
cheap; because society requires a certain
amount Of appearance, you know be
cause it would not do to go to the out
skirts Of the town \ log cabin Is better
for young married people than the Fifth
| Avenue Hotel would be if they had the
whole of it for nothing! What you get
| for nothing is least valuable to you Of
anything What you earn is all value.
| Under these influences the whole life Is
written in the wrong key. Men having
started on the false principle, they do not
get over it. They are perpetually temp
ted to overlive by their very affections
If there is anything that an honorable
and sensible man S nature feels and can
not stand, it is the silent comparison, on
the part of the wife, by look even, of
the way IN which she did live, and the
way in which she does live. How does it
drive them out of simplicity and out OF
bold willingness to live according to their
circumstances! How does it teach them
to live for other peoples eyes, and not
for their own actual needs How does it