Year: 1871

There is nothing more melancholy.
But what shall we do about it9i Must
people unhappily married live on in rene.
diless misery? Must man be forever
| chained to Xantippes Must a woman
always endure man who is petty ty-
rants These are questions which some
| social reformers are asking vehemently
| just now. Let us loose these bonds and
let these chained people go. What right
has the law, civil or moral, to bind peo-
pie in living death? Let people live
together who love, and let people who do
not love 60 free l


This surely seems very simple remedy
very easily applied. Bat is it a remedy,
after all? Will either of these unhappijy.
married people be any happier If they are
separated? You have husband or wife
who makes you exceedingly unhappy.
viii divorce relieve your You carry
still the memory of the unhappincss, the
sense of disappointment, the fatal and ter
rible blight with YOU. VIII not separa-
ton aggravate your misery9 And if one
OF the two might be made happier by
divorce, there would be no aggregate in
crease OF happiness. Ifyou have made a
mistake in marriage, it is your mistake.
II you are not happy, your companion
surely is not. And you have 10 night
now to blight and blast the life of another
unfortunate by separation, making mat
ters tenfold worse than they are


People who are unhappily married are
not likely to remarry happily. If there
are tempers that have spoiled the first mar
riage, there 10 10 prospect of better fate
in second marriage. To these evil tenn
pers there is added the shamefaced recol-
lection of d marriage bond to one who is
yet living, and the humiliation and dis
honor OF divorce. For the marriage is
in its very nature indissoluble. There
can not be re-marriage while a former
husband or wife lives, without hope
less dehlemert of the souls purity,
bunting and blurring of the very sense OF
purity itself


If there are children, the case is worse.
lie who is father indeed, would endure
any unhappiness rather than subj ct his
children to the modification and demor-
alization Of divided tilial affection and
conflicting allegiance to father aud mother.
In such a case, divorce and re-marriage is
confusion, destruction, death.


We know that it seems hard for those
who sit down in loving homes to advise
those who sit in the shadow of this death
to endure it. But there is no other way
than to endure it. We are not speaking
of those cases Of brutality or fiendishness
in which separation becomes necessary.
But of those continual droppings and
perpetual rainy days of pickering and
dissension, of those sudden and fierce
storms that sweep through some unhappy
households. No separation on account
of incompatibility of temper can do any
good


Part of the unhappincss in any family
may be cured by any husband or wifc. a
bad temper is as much a misfortune as
sin. 1t is born with some people, and
they are no more responsible for its pos
session than for splay foot or squint-
eye. We do not say that it may not be
controlled. But we do say that your nus
band or wife is only partly TO be blamed
for an ill-temper or a selfish disposition
What is not matter for ccnsure is matter
for pity. If you can come TO treat the un-
fortunate member of the house as unfor-
tunate, you will get your reward at least
in your own peace of mind Make up
your mind to cure all you can of the un-
happiness in your Ii household, and patient
~ 10 endure the rest. Every one has
some burden to bear. Yours NAV be
heavy. But tn re are others also who
bear heavy burdens. The worst terma-
CANT we ever knew had also generous
qualities. And she married husband
conquer by patience. That she will ever
be otherwise than troublesome we doubt.
But she is utterly devoted to her husband.
she regards his conquest of her as little
less than miraculous. We have seen him
ander vexations, but one word in any way
censuiing his wife we have never heard
escape his lips, and we do not believe she
has ever heard such word He his his
in measure of happiness where a
less patient man would have had only un-
niiigated misery.