Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1903-11-25

pillulous smallness the cobweb of
prematrimonial acquaintanceship ?''
George Eliot asks the question, apro
pos of the infatuation of Dorothea
Brooke young, clever pretty, and well
lowered, for Mr.. Casaubon, elderly.
ungainly, dogmatlc, and, in the eyes
of all her friends, altogether unattrac
tive as a suitor. The novelist moral
izing over the unaccountable attach.
ment, sagely decides that life would
be unable to go on at any period but
for the liberal allowance of conclu.
sions which facilitates marriage under
the difficulties Of civilization.
This liberal allowance OF conclu.
sions" explains many of the marriages
whoch afford a never ending puzzle to
everybody who knows the contracting
parties. The truth is that not cnly
is it not given to us to see ourselves
as others see us, the difference of
vision extends to our point of viewing
others, and some psychologists go so
far as to affirm that scarcely any two
people, not trained in the same school.
or not nodded by the same influ-
ences, ever seeth @ same thing in the
same light, and not always even when
so trained Considering the celebrity
with which many people rush into
love, and forthwith into matrimony,
the wonder is not that there are un.
happy marriages and occasional di.
vorces, but that there are not many
more Of them. For, after all, most
married couples, however Ill assorted
they seem to outsiders, manage to jog
along comfortably together; to make
the most OF each others virtues, and
overlook or ignore each others faults
The best proof of the divine character
OF the institution of marriage Is tho
fact that living together in this rela'
tion improves both men and women,
IL there be any good material in them
TO work upon, and often lifts them
quite out Of the selfishness which lay
at the root Of their first desire for
and pleasure in each others society.
Time and especially the development
OF that most unselfsh form OF affec'
tion, the paternal, transforms the gid.
dy girl and the self-assertiye man into
the thoughtful, tender, self-sacrifcing
wife and mother, husband and father,
who, in looking back upon the first
years of married life, find in them
nothing to compare with the full frui'
tion which experience and the educa'
tion of lives devoted to the care for
others have brought about them.
All marriages made in haste are by
no means repented at leisure; and
taking the leap in the dark goodly
number land upon their feet with no
broken bones or bruises 10 speak OF
No one who has given serious serious
thought TO the subject can deny tho
existence Of love at first sight. In
these days when everything must be
analyzed and explained, mental scien'
lists have a theory to the effect that
every one, man or woman, is pos
sessed of an aura, a species OF per
sonaI atmosphere which surrounds
them and attracts or repels with more
or less magnetic force. according to
the strength Of the aura and fts rela'
tive action upon the auras OF others.
BY this they account for love at first
sight. as we'll as for the antipathies
which persons sometimes experience
without apparent cause. When two
auras are wholly sympathetic heart
leaps to heart, each finding its affinity
in the other. In such cases It is as
though they had known one another
from the beginning time is oblterat
ed, ana the perfect fruit ripens with
magical rapidity under the touch OF
the arch magician, love.
But alack and well-a-day! people
sometimes mistake mere iOney. that
will-o-thewisp, for the steady fre OF
love, and the false light leads its pur
suer
"O'er bush and DER brier,
Through mud and through mlre'
10 his or her woe and undoing,
It is always best to make haste
slowly. especially undertakings OF
moment; to look before one leaps
This does not mean sloth, nor undue
vacillation, the halting Between two
opinions until opportunity is lost. On
the contrary. one takes time only 70
make sure that one is right. and then
goes ahead IN good earnest.
The nearest and dearest intimacy
possible 10 humanity is that between
husband and wife They twain shall