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

good, and equally stupid to assert
that it is all bad. There is plenty OF
evil which you do not have to hunt
for, because it has an insolent way of
thrusting itself to the front; and there
is plenty of good if you take pains to
look for it.
OF all men on the earth the one l
despise is the arrant rogue who sees
everybody else through his own
roguery.
The fellow who sneers at honor in
men and purity in women because he
never had any sense of honor himself,
and long ago dispensed with his
purity, is simply intolerable. would
rather have some one drop an icicle
down my back than to hear such
one chatter.
Now, since my business is to tell
the exact truth as understand it, l
wish to say, with all possible en-
phasis, that there are many happy
marriages. l know some couples
who have been in each others COM
pany for twenty years, and who would
not exchange their homes for the
bliss of heaven. The husband and
wife are not simply bound together
by the law of the land, but by that
kind of love which overcomes all OBJ
stacles and sweetens every sorrow.
They would rather be shoulder to
shoulder with each other, even amid
somewhat straitened circumstances,
than side by side with any one else
in palace. The old romance still
fingers, the old chivalry persists, and
the poetry of other days has not
changed to prose.
He brings a rose home with as
much enthusiasm as he showed be-
fore he put the weddingring on her
finger, and time has served to mellow
rather than efface the tenderness with
which he regards her. She is still
his queen, the one most of all to be
desired; and he has never once been
tempted to look into another woman's
face. She satisfies him, fills his cup
full. There is nothing like humdrum
in their lives, and their sun shines as
brightly in the afternoon as it did 10
the morning.
And she thinks of him when she is
shopping, and stops at the confec-
toners for paper of bonbons of
which he is fond, and which will give
him a glad surprise after the long
days work. Proud of him? Why
to hear her speak of him you would
think him a god. He is SO wise, and
so good, and so refined, and yet so
manly 1t would never do to let her
write his biography, for the world
would hardly recognize the picture
she would draw. But then the
worlds opinion is nothing; we are
only thinking of their opinion of each
other.
Yes, happy marriages there are;
and do you know, think mine would
have been added to the list if She
and | had gone to the altar together.
| All, she is such a cultured creature,
with that refinement of soul which
only nature can give! have sat in
the cleaning in the little family par
lor and listened to her improvisations
at the piano, when she set her mood
to music, and they are the happiest
hours within reach of my memory.
But from pure merriment, with which
she began, she always dropped after
little into the minor KEY, and played
SO softly and SO sadly that I could
not keep the tears from my eyes.
often wonder why this always
happened; why she should have made
the keys laugh to begin with and
sigh to end with. Was it kind of
forecast of the future, prophecy of
what was to come?
Well, must get away from that
subject.
Now, if there are happy marriages,
there are also unfortunate couples
who made a mistake when they Sc
lected each other.
They began with castles in the air,
and they end with mutual avoidance
on every possible occasion.
At first there is no pleasure apart
from each other; at last there is no
pleasure unless they are apart.
Perhaps my observation has been
exceptional; but when think of this
puzzIing problem | am surprised that
l know SO many people who blum
dered when they got married.
What is the matter with the world?
Do people marry too young or too
late, or is domestic misery a neces-
sary part of our disciplined
| Noncanaa We never intended to