Morning journal and courier., 1889-11-12

will always desire husbands possessed of
themselves eager, in the abstract, for the
very same things. The wonder is, indeed,
not that part of the woman's ideal in mar
riage should be money, but that, this ideal
having been formed and kept alive by the
public opinion of the whole sex, it should be
overthrown go easily as 1t is. When the abb
straction is brought into contact with the re-
ality it disappears almost at once. A hum
dred maidens may resolve quite sincerely
that 1t would be absurd to marry any one
but rich men. The moment, however,
that they try to get Themselves out of love
with particular poor one they see their
mistake and resign their theories. Yet, In
spite of this, and of the fact that a mercen-
ary spirit can and often does yield to love, 1t
may perhaps be argued that the existence of
the worldly tone among women, even if 1t is
to great extent unreal, is very much to be
deprecated.
A girl, 1t may be contended, is so sophis-
ticated by this talk of marrying well that
she thinks it perfectly right and proper to
say "Yes" to the first suitor who is eligible
from pecuniary point of view, be he never
80 unsuitable from every other. No doubt
there is some truth in this objection. Every
now and then an unhappy marriage is made
simply because the wife has yielded to the
uOGlOu Guas money WAS 6u0 Ouly GuluS tO Uo
thought of. If we consider for a moment,
however, what would be the result If the
conventional aspirations in regard to mar
risge were different, we shall see that a
change would only be for the worse. If wo-
men held as an abstract truth that no pecus
mary considerations ought ever weigh with
them at all, we should have infinitely more
instances of matrimonial disaster brought
about by sophistication of the intelligence
than we have at present. 1t is never diff
cult for woman to persuade herself that
she is in love, and if, the moment she had
performed this easy feat, the weight of tra-
dition, of public opinion, and of example
were to influence her toward accepting her
supposed lovers proposals, We should indeed
have plenty of marrying in haste and re-
penting at leisure. That girls are strongly
Influenced by the conventions among which
they are brought up is, indeed, matter of
from that fatal gift of believing things that
they know to be untrue, which in some
measure belongs to every woman. The de-
sire to marry well often proves the touch
stone by which unconsciously girl is ena-
bled to take the true measure of her feel
ings toward man. If it overcomes the
conventions in regard to bad match, she
need not feel afraid of trusting herself to its
direction. If it does not, In ninety nine
Cdsc5 Ou0 VI q uouuACu LILO poooAoh was Ai1cAo
ly delusion from which a woman will some
day thank heaven she escaped in safety.
So far from the social danger of the pres
ent age being the worldliness of women, we
are half inclined to think that the weaker
sex are ready to abandon too easily the older
notions in regard to marriage, are getting a
little too prone to make love in the abstract
the only condition. This we believe would
be real disadvantage, though it is possibly
balanced by tendency said to be observable
in young men to consider comfort as the aim
of life, and so to postpone marriage till II
cannot by any possibility involve personal
sacrifice. On the whole, indeed, we are not
sure that men are not more worldly in re-
gard to matrimony than women. They dc
not, perhaps, 30 universally expect rich
| wives, but that is because there are SO few
heiresses. They do. however, what Is much
| the same. In the abstract, they regard mar
| riage as impossible until they shall be in the
possession Of an income capable of securing
them the highest standard of life which OBJ
| tains in the class to which they belong
| This is their form of mercenariness, and
unless we mistake, they incline to persist il
| it with somewhat more resolution than thei
potentfal wives