The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-05-13
Effect Of Intellectual Culture Upon Mar.
riage. =

| Ahh@Ns
Professor Felix Adler, speaking before
the Society of Ethical Culture YESTERDAY
morning. said: ''The conjugal union
differs from every other kind of union in
the fact that it is designed to be com
plete union. The union between hus.
band and wife ought to be a union in all
things, not only in any particular thing;
il should be complete fusion of two
lives. The sentence that 1.-TWO are to
become one'' is to be taken literally.
Hitherto the two have had separate
abodes: now they are to have a single
abode. Hitherto they have had separate
regulations. The good repute or the
evil repute of the one did not affect the
other: now they share honor and dis
grace. They also have wealth and pow
erty together. Even the richness of the
one implies pains and burdens for the
other. This union in respect to external
things makes the strong superstructure
of marital happiness. Secondly. they
are united through their feelings, and
here il is, especially the presence of
children in the household that seems to
make firm the bond between husband
and wife. In the realm of the affections
we find a remarkable parallel to an axiom
in mathematics. for as in mathematics
we are told that things equal to the same
thing are equal to each other; so in the
realm of the affections it is true that those
affections that turn to the same object are
thereby turned te each other. The par
ents both feel the same love for the
children, and each finds the other in
their common offspring. 1t must be a
strange father who loves his child and
is not made thereby to love more dearly
the mother of his child, and strange
mother who feels the warnings of ten
derness for her babe without thinking
with tenderness of the father of her babe.
do not say, then, that Intellectual Gull
ture is necessary as basis Of protection
for the conjugal union. There are, on
the contrary, many marriages in which
the intellectual culture of the partners is
of very meager kind, and yet these are
not. therefore, unhappy marriages. But
what do say is that intellectual culture
will infinitely elevate the married life
and raise it to much higher plane than
it would otherwise move upon. l call
to mind the fact that marriage is de-
signed to be complete union of those
who enter into it. Therefore it is not
enough that there should be a union only
in external things or uni on in the feel
ings; but the perfect marriage is there
only when the intellect, too, of the man
is married to the intellect of the woman;
when there is intellectual companionship
and intellectual friendship between them;
when their minds grow together, each
with and through the other, and each
the intellectual complement of the other
even as husband and wife are designed
to be complementary of each other in all
other respects. a.
1t is especially on the broad field of
general culture that spouses may intel
1ectually meet. But here we come upon
a deficiency that will explain why there
is 80 little of that intellectual comrade-
ship which is so essential to the perfect
marriage. The fact is that the majority
of men as we'll as of women are lacking
in general culture. We call this scien-
tiic age, but, as has been truly re-
marked, the majority cover themselves
with the glory of the few. There are a
few scientific men in this age, and the
rest say that they live in scientific age.
Even specialists of eminence in one de-
partment find it difficult to keep up with
progress in other departments, but the
main results of new investigations and
discoveries at least should be known by
all, and some fair general knowledge of
the processes by which those results
were reached should be acquired by
each one. Of the simplest phenomena
that happen around us the scientific ex-
PLANTATION is known only to the few,
while deeper knowledge of history
and its meanings, and of the subject of
ethics and its leading principles, is still
more rare. What we need is move
ment for the intellectual advancement
of men as we'll as women. Adult
classes, if possible in the evenings, in
which a consecutive course of study,
with voluntary organizations for those
who desire them, can be prosecuted.
But what is desired more than all this,
as the indispensable condition for all
right reform in this direction, is the
recognition that the mind must constant
ly grow and expand so long as we exist
on earth; that no one can lead truly
human life who does not also LEAD an in
tellectual life.-N Y. Herald.