The Newtown bee., 1904-10-14
TOWN TOPICS SOCIAL TOPICS.
wEDDED SPIRITS. BY O. o. WRIGHT

There are various kinds of bonds in the matrimonial market: physical, mental, moral, spiritual. Men and women are united on the different planes of life: commercial, social, in- tellectual, esthetic and religious. Marriage may be civil contract alone, or it may have the sanction of both the State and the Church. We may look at the union from the sc1en- 1 titic point of view and consider the | fitness of it as to the welfare and im- provement of society. Marriage ought to keep up, and better the family stock. Posterity has rights to be talk en into account. We have moral du- ties toward our offspring. What right has one generation to burden the next with an inheritance of weakness and misery? We, may treat the matter from the traditional standpoint, and in that case we may ask why should any one wish to ruin the good name and social standing of his family by foolish alliance with an inferior and unworthy stock.
 The motives to marriage are many and strange; and all things considered the wonder is that the world is not worse off than it is; for sex-love and wedlock involve everything, in one sense or another, body, soul and spirit. In some cases, it must be said, that to all appearances the union is simply one of bodies. The attraction must be physical, because it cannot, in the nature of the case, be anything else. The union may be one of souls, and not of spirits. Tastes, opinions and worldly interests may agree while there is no mutual fellowship of con- victions and spiritual ideals. There are such marriages that shock the moral sense of the community be- cause everyone feels the serious unfit ness and inevitable unhappiness of the union.
 Personal criticism may not be help full to affection, but the process may tend to reveal the truth and so save one from misfortune and ruin. The test of love should be applied to all the essential clements of character, and the important conditions of life. When you marry, you are united to the whole man, and the whole woman; to the mans family and friends; to woman's family and friends. Are you prepared to love your prospective mother-in-law? Do you admire fhe social circle to which you are think ing of being joined? Do you love the man for what he is as to his personal habits, tastes, opinions, convictions and religion? Is the soul of the man congenial to you? Does the spirit of his life appeal to your heart and con- science? What is it that you love, in the man, or in the woman of your choice?
 It has been well said that "Sex is first of all spiritual distinction, a distinction of mind, as the result of this, it is a distinction in physical form. Marriage, also, in it's highest and best sense, is for spiritual pur- poses. Woman is form of affection: man is form of wisdom. In true marriage the two are perfectly united, making one dual mind; and when true and real marriage is once made, it is never dissolved The modern question, Is marriage a failure? rests on misconception of what marriage is. Correctly understood, marriage is never a failure. It is the civil con- tract, based on wealth., honour and other worldly considerations, and which the interested parties mistake for marriage, because it is ratified in church, that fails. Once made, true marriage is never unmade; and it is as much needed to complete the happi- ness of the angels in heaven, as the happiness of man upon earth"