Thomas County cat., 1886-11-11
VIEWS ON MARRIAGE.
The Weight Of Opinion Decidedly
FavOrs It.
Words of the Wise and Sarcastic--Omens
Regarding the Choice of q Life Part
ner-Lucky Days-Curious
Marriage Customs

Marriage is honorable in ALL" says
st. Paul; and the same opinion has
been expressed in much the same
words by innumerable authors from
Seneca downward. 1t is curious, how
ever, to note how writer's have differed
in the testimony ihey have borne to
this. the most sacred of human rela-
tionships. "a man finds himself sew
en- years older the day after his mar
rage" says Bacon; and according to
a lady writer marriage is 1.-THE mctem-
psychOsis of woman-it turns them
into different creatures from what they
were before" The reading that comes
between the lines here is capable of
more than one Interpretation, and it
must be left to the initiated to take
the view which most answers to their
own circumstances. There are no two
meanings, however, in the Johnsonian
declaration that marriage is the best
state for man in general, and every
man is a worse man in proportion as
he is unfit for the married
state" Nor. although he looks
at the matter in two aspects, is there
any ambiguity in Daniel Webster's
opinion that in marriage there is no
purgatory-.'it locally contains Heaven
or hell; there is no third place in it. -
Nevertheless the relationship is good
for the chief upholders of the doctrine
of a third state. for we have a dis
tinguished wearer of the ring of the
Fisherman Pius ID preaching that
marriage is better for the clergy than
single life" And even Voltaire,
with all his doubts and speculations,
has this TO say with regard to the
sacred tie: 1.-The more married men
you have the fewer crimes there will
be, inasmuch as marriage renders
man morc, virtuous and more wise"
Cotton put in that marriage is feast
where the grace is sometimes better
than the dinner. Melanchthon agreed
with Eoltaire on this question, his
opinion being ''few unmarried people
are affected as they ought to be toward
the public good and perceive what are
really the most important objects in
life. Montaigne is inclined to be
ironical on the subject, saying that
1.-THE land of marriage has this pecu-
liarity, that strangers are de-
sirous of inhabitng it. while its
natural inhabitants would willing
~ be banished from thence"
If there is irony also in Sydney
Smiths observation On the subject, it
is softened with delightful touch of
humor We have the genial divine
comparin" married couples to pair of
shears, 80 joined that they can not
he separated. often moving in opposite
directions. yet always Furnishing any
one who comes between them" We
have one noted author intimating that
even at the worse there is certain
measure of benefit in marriage. I'VE
arc Tot very much to blame for our
bad marriages." SAYS Emerson: 1--WE
live amid hailucinations. and this
especial trap is laid to trip up our feet
with. and all are tripped up. first or
last, but the mi ghty mother who had
been so sly with us. rs if she felt she
owed us some indemnity. insinuates
into the Pandora box of marriage some
deep and serious benefits and some
great joys There are the same diff
ferenccs in the verdict on the married
state in the poetic as in the prose ref
erences to it. The testimony on both
aspects of marriage is in fact volumiI-
Gus. and it could not well be other
wise, seeing that it deals with what
bears chiefly on human joy or sorrow.
But there is no question as to which
way the balance turns.
To begin with. however, it Is i'm pos
sible, of course, to say whether mar
riage will realize all the happiness the
two persons chiefly concerned may
naturally be supposed to anticipate
from it. And it is not surprising that
as it is choice ..for better. for
worse" even matter-of-fact people are
disposed on such occasions to pay
some little attention to usages and
omens appeI1aining to such a choice.
The bride is sure to rejoice if the sun
shines on her, and is as likely to be de-
pressed should the marriage take place
: in a thunder storm. She does not
trouble herself for the moment that
the light or shade she has most reason
to look for or dread depends entirely
on the way in which she and her hus-
band are determined to bear and
forbear with each other.
Here there is no mention of Sunday
IA favorire marrying day in the hum
bier walks of life in some parts of En-
gland and Ireland In Scotland Sum
day is not known as a marriage day,
nor is Monday in any great favor,
owing probably to an old law, passed
early in the eighteenth century, direct