The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-03-21

are least fitted to Judge of the condi-
tions of human happiness. The fate
full step is taken during the romantic
period, before poetry has given way
to reality. A young girl fresh from
her school-books is not equipped
either mentally or emotionally for a
proper consideration of the marriage
relation.
She idealizes her lover. He may
have the most glazing faults of char
acter, but she is totally blind to them.
Neither by education or experience
is she fitted to discern between the
qualities which will make her misera-
BILE and those which will bring her
content.
She thinks she can blissfully be
happy in two rooms, and if her father
tells her nay she regards him as a
tyrant.
Warming does no good to either
girls or boys, for they are ready to
trust volatile passion in preference
to common sense. To what extent,
therefore, is John right, when he says
that the chances are against both him
and her?
If society were so constituted that
lovers could make trial of each other
for two years of married life, and
then decide whether they would
travel together, how many separa-
lions would there be at the end of
the two years?
How many would discover that
'things are not what they seem;" and
how many would wonder, after the
lapse of that experimental period, how
it was possible for them to make so
grave mistake.
But society is not SO constituted,
and we therefore live on after our
discovery, trying to make the best,
or, if we are desperate, making the
worst of our unhappy state.
The question is, What proportion
of married people do find out at some
time that they were never intended
for each other, and thereafter live
comparatively separate lives?
1t strikes me that these instances
are appallingly numerous, and yet |
am firmly convinced that such catas-
trophies can to certain extent be
avoided. If men and women will ac
cept and conform to the conditions
of domestic happiness, the happiness
is likely to follow.
Perfect confidence is the primary
condition of healthy relation be-
tween man and a woman who are
living under the same roof; and when
that confidence is shattered, disaster
is sure to follow, or, what is much
worse, a continual friction is pro-
duced which spoils the life of the
man, sends the woman into society
for the sake of excitement, and per
haps break the hearts of both.
Let me emphasize my statements
by an illustration. Jack and Madge
Curtison had a very bright future
when they left the church on their
wedding trip. Slippers and rice at
tested the goodwill of everyone in
the circle of their friends. They were
apparently as we'll suited to each
other-so ! thought when l stood at
the back of the church and saw them
at the altar-as any couple that ever
exchanged VOWS. 1t was genuine
love-match. Jack was Madge's cham
pion in his boyhood, and don't
know that he ever seriously cared for
any one else.
There were only two criticisms
which the cynic could make: he was
just bit jealous, and she was just
bit thoughtless. However, we are
not archangels, and it was thought
that such superficial faults as these
would disappear in time. There was
nothing on which to base prophecy
of disagreement or unhappiness, for
they both had degree of common
sense.
One day Jack was called to Chi
cago on business, and parted with
his little wife with great regret, for
she could not accompany him. He
took the train on Thursday night,
and within two hours it began to
snow. 1t showed steadily all the
next day until five o'clock, when a
slight rain fell, which packed the
snow hard and made the most mag
nifcent sleighing. Saturday morn
ing the mercury fell to ten above,
and the air was crisp, sharp, exhilara-
ting.
Tom Nevins was an old admirer OF
Madge, and-I say this in confidence
had some slight hopes in the old
days. But though Madge liked him