Year: 1868

question of Marriage in a pleasant


way. We Gull few passages:


"Is life really life, if one must pas,
it on the tight rope? Is existenc,
worth having, when it is eternally {
question of balancing-sway L
this side and bending to that?


as it proven that all people have
a vocation for marriage and is conju
galism per sc certain to require thOsI
who, to attain it, must divide between
two what they had already found
barely sufficient for one ?-These are
the simple questions which we have
no need of a philosopher to ask ol
answer for us. If one were simply tC
pronounce from what appears on thC
surface of life-and il is hard TO &c
deeper-we should say that the single
people, especially the men, have tht
best of it. They are the more in re
quest amsng their friends, available
for more attentions, and keep Longer
young than their married brethren.


'"Thes double-barreled egotism O.
marriage spoils many good fellow
and destroys the charm of many a de
lightful woman. The firm, tina
terrible partnership, crops pat every
moment, and rOuts that glorious
spontaneity, that delicious irTespOn
sibility, we once remembered.


II have no patience with thOsS
people who want to marry on what il
is a puzzle 10 them to live singly
upon. They must be moral, forsOOth
at the cost of reducing some unhappy
girl to drudgery on the false pretenst


-, - G,1- - L a


''Why can't they let it alone a:
the great master of common. sense
said of a less eventful' ul'eontingency.


Il have met more pleasant anC
companionable people among the sin
gle than the married but there is {
canting notion abroad that marriage
is a sort of backbone for good behavior
and so. the curate must be married
and the doctor ought to be married
l don't know how far the theory goes
or whether a lady's shoemaker should
have wife, but am sure her coifeaI
ought.


Il hope we shall soon hear the las
of this tiresOme controversy; for, il
any man wishes positively to Rscer.
tain, from his personal experience
whether il be safe 10 marry on e10(
per, annum, let him commit small
misdemeanor in Ireland and be sent
to Jail for three months. If this con-
stitution stands the dietary-the
seven ounces of cruel and pinch OF
barley per diem-he may have his
banns published the day he comes
out, and certainly there will be moth
ing in his absorbent system to inter
fere with his happiness.


But it Is a mistake TO suppose
that marriage is a necessity, except tC
a three-volume novel. l am certain
that q very large number of people
are not made for that species of com
paniOnship. Mind / am not enamor-
ed of Mormonism or spiritual wifery
nor have 1 the slightest sympathy
with AgapemOnes. What l desire tC
insist on is, that our present-day
civilization inculcates coniugalism
too indiscriminateiy, and takes most
unjustifiabIe means to support its
position. One of these, and the least
commendable of all is to disparage
those who are called old maids.
have seen many a timid rider in a
hunting field jeered into riding at q
fence that cost him a "cropper ;" and ]
am convinced that many women are
driven into marriage TO escape the
obloquy and sarcasm of belonging to
that maligned category.


lit is no exaggeration to say ma
ligned. / would ask any one who
has seen much of Hfe-who has, so to
say, been man OF the world, watch
ing its ways and studying its dOings-
would ask him, has he ever met in
any section of humanity greater
gentleness and patience
than among these. same old maids
Where has he found more hearty,
genial, generous natures? ? where more
sound views of life disfigured by fewer
prejudices? where more thorough
charity in discussing the motives
where, in the word, less of these very
by which it has pleased the
world to characterize this class? 1t is
no part of my task to call witnesses to
what say; but one I will cite,
because she eminently represented all
that have so feebly attempted to
picture; and if her genius might seem
TO outshine the -luster of her personal
qualities, it is only to those who had
not the happiness and it was happi-
ness of her intimacy. / am talking
Df Miss Edgeworth, and it is well
worth all the weight of the years it
Dbliges to have met and known her.


''I will not affirm that marriage
could have spoiled such a nature, but
| will say it could not have bettered
It. Nor is it small part of the
matter that at eighty she was the
guiding spirit, the delight and the
charm of that family which derived
glory from her name and happiness
rom her presence.


"Is it to class which numbers Miss
and Miss Nightingale
its members women need
shame to belong?


81 have done. / will only add that,
instead of heaping ridicule on the
condition of unmarried women, and
tut of sheer derisOn driving them to
accept anybOdy-anything-as hus-
bands, let us accord them all the
difference and regard we bestow on
and let US not forget, in the
presence of some 'old maid whose
Qualities of mind and nature have
harmed US, and whose traces of
beauty are not few nor faint, that if
We do deem matrimony the great
,rize in life, it is living shame to
'ur sex that such a women should be
ingle.


''If have wandered from my text
f Marriages ON Starvation Allow
nee, it is simply because have not
hat Oyerweening impression of con-
ugalism that / would recommend any
ne to face beggary to attain It any
more than / would advise a man TO
ay out his last shilling to buy a ticket
II the lottery"