The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-02-21


likely that most men take far less pslas
to be sure they are right before deciding
the question Of q wife than they would
if they were buying a house for her to
live in. Aud many young woman
answers the question that fixes her
state for life with less reflection t han
she gives to the choice of dress or a
bonnet. These matters of the heart are.
with the young, determined Intention
ally without the cool exercise of the
faculty of reason, the highest Of humad
endowments, and which has no nobfer
and better opportunity for its employ
ment than in coming to a wise decision
as to the choice or acceptance Of
a companion for life Yes. it
is an affair of the heart, and if the
heart is not in it all other things go
for nothing. Cali it a love affair. Let
it be a love affair. And if you cannot
make it love affair, by all means give
it up. For be assured of this, if the
heart is not in it, the whole heart, al
the strong and tender passions that help
to make up the world OF human affection.
such as every true man or true woman
lavishes on the partner of iife's joys and
pains, if the whole heart is not in it, it
were better to hang milestone around
the neck of that contemplated union and
drown 1t forever in the depth of the sea,
than to make it reality The error O
the moment that completes the engage
ment with no heart in it becomes the
sorrow of life. The two-fold nature of
every human soul is made up of reason
and emotion; both are inseparable from
the being. They ought to be equal in
power. Nobody is complete without
both in living exercise; in some natures
one is in excess, and in other natures
the other; one is more frequently domi-
nant in men. the other in woman. Ii
both have not their highest and intens-
est development in the decision of this
question, then all the future is the re-
suit of blind chance, or, what is more,
the mercy of Providence that is far bet
ter to US than our deserts. But as this
question is often decided in the imma
turity of the mind, in the veal time IT
life when even love itself is sometimes
profanely called calf love, before either
of the little couple of people know what
their minds are, if they have anything
fit to be called mind, before they know
what they are going to be and do. and
therefore before they know what they
want, stumbling into passion that sets
| Judgment aside as an impertinence, and
being governed solely by an impulse
which is as tickle and transient as it is
sudden and silly, they fall into an error
that makes the sorrow of lifetime.
do not care to consider the vexed
question Of the comparative number of
happy and unhappy marriages. In the
church and in those circles Of society by
whom we are surrounded, there are
doubtless hundreds of happy households
to one where the marriage state is long
drawn out misery. But the records in
the daily newspapers of separations.
fights, murders, flights, divorces that
| project themselves upon the public
horizon so that they smell to heaven in
their wickedness and shock humanity
by their wretchedness. are so many, SO
tragical and deplorable as to prove be-
| yond all denial or doubt that these mar
riages were made unwisely, and the
error is punished with sorrow that no
tongue can tell and no imagination con-
ceive.
And underneath the surface of fair So
ciety, smooth and pure to the eye of the
world, how many fearful tragedies are
! performed! A husband converted by
wine into fend; and wife with I'M
conquered temper turned from a min
istering angel into fury; homes with
skeletons in every closet and walls
echoing forever tie signs of crushed
affections and blighted hopes. Oyer
these the pail is thrown to hide them
/ from the sight of men.
Now, abhor the advice of that cyni-
cal London newspaper which says to
| young people about to marry: Don't.
The satire itimplies is undeserved and
despicable. To all young people who
have the means of being comfortable in
the married state | say: Do 1t. 1t is the
ordinance of nature, the voice of God,
who sets the solitary in families, and
who will bless the basket and the store
of them who walk in the way of His
commandments. Get married, by all
/ means. But if your reason and emotions
both are not in it, then. with Punch,
say: Don't. =. stz- H
The wisest of men, under the inspira-
ton of the Almighty, said: ''with good
advice make war, and I say with good
advice make love- And in this | think
/ have the mind of the spirit
'ire1saeas. in N. Y. Observer
|