Year: 1871

oc4 4A4N0 &AAAAS1&1&1A/s t s . What is the chief end of mane asks the Westminster Catechism, and looking only to what it considers the grand purpose in the creation of man. it makes reply: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But were we to answer the question according to the facts and conduct of the world around us we should declare that the chief end of man is 10 make money, and the chief end of woman to get married. These are the objects to which people in the prime of their days mainly devote theil powers, and which they must attain before they can cpsider life success

 But though these aims of the two sexes appear at first glance so diverse in theil nature, we shall see that they are in reality one and the same. Woman of the present day, no less than man, sets pre-eminent value upon wealth, and prizes quite as much the material comforts and the social position which it brings, but it is possible for her to obtain it only through a rounda bout course When he would possess d fortune. he goes to work to earn it directly. by labor of head or hands; when she de sires to do the same, she may not hope. by any endeavors she can put forth, to gain competence and honor for old age The varied markets of the world do not invite her to their traffic; no institutions ex- ist to train her talents to special professions or trades; what unskilled handiwork she csn offer is unjusily paid; and society, ciinglng to old ideas, would still shame her from all exertiOn by telling her that 1t is contrary to her nature and unbecomlng to her sex. It teaches her that she should look always to another for support, that her daily bread, to be eaten with dignity and grace, must be the gift of male rela- tions, from whom she is to borrow, like, wise, her chief consideration, and whose reflected glory is the sole distinction she should seek. Her father will of course pro- vide for her maintenance in early years, but in due season, if she would not become an unwelcome burden upon his hands, she must be able to secure another who shall gladly charge himself with her support. It is plain to her, then, that when she offers her work to man he has only Q niggardly pittance to dole out as the payment of her toll, but that that if she becomes his life- long companion, he is ready to share with her his own great earnings as the free gift of his love.

 Hence marriage, which to man is thing apart from the main business of his days, not turning it from its course, not neces- sarily affecting it. but appearing to him only as @ wider, fuller social existence, iE which he may indulge when his means will warrant, becomes to woman the primal ob- ject of her endeavor, the all-in-all in life, upon which her whole future depends. To secure husband is to start in life, as i'm portant to young woman. in its financial aspect, as to young man is an establish ment in a good profession. and indeed vastly more so, since no subsequent efforts of her own cun materially improve her out ward circumstances, and no change Is to be made if her choice shall prove unfortunate. This one irrevocable act determines her lot. Whether she is to be rich or poor, courted or ignored by the world about her, will de- pend almost wholly upon the income and talents of the companion whom she may select, or rather. we should say, who may select her-for it is another curious feature life. that while it makes this step so im- portant in her existence, it forbids her to take a single open and acknowledged means that she shall stand with folded hands and mute lips while the fates are shaking the fatal dice before her eyes. But too much

 

 from exerting indirectly all her powers to secure 6 favorable result.

 A young man must labor when he would succeed in the business of life, young wo. man must charm. She must become si. ren and lure lovers and admirers to her side, since she is not permitted to cross the insulating waves to them. This may not be obvious to her in early years, nor does oh Soo uhu hor o1uoofinu is odo what if is, why she learns accomplishments and mannerisms while her brother is mastering problems of science and mathematics. nor why she devotes herself to dress while he is learning a trade. But all this she comes in time to see, and with clear sense and eager hopes she cannot but reflect much upon what so vitally concerns her future. She realizes that the present is her golden harvest. time, when her attractive qualities are most potent and suitors most easily won. Once let the freshness of her beauty fade, the vivacity of youth depart, and her charms will lessen year by year. When these are gone, her only hope will be, per haps, to marry some hard headed, cold hearted widower, who may be looking for a housekeeper, and who may have no mate rilal riches, nor any semblance of love to gild the lot which she concludes to accept, as more tolerable than poverty and lone- Illness. It is then . plain bargain, divested of all entertainments; he wishes Q reliable woman to direct his house and nurse for hls neglected children, and this she is at last willing to become for the board and clothes and home which it will confer and which she finds it so hard to obtain. She knows many middle.a aged women who.have married in this way, but it is lot from which she shrinks in her youth. She hopes then for love and tender sympathies as we'll as for the opulence and ease which she covets for her own.

 Does any one wonder then that husband

 hunting is the chief occupation of young

 women? Does any one sheer at them as silly and reckless because they are ready

 to stake everything which they should val ue for after life-health, useful acquire

 ments and culture in this eager pursuit

 and brand them as mercenary when they

 turn deaf ears to indigent lovers and smile

 only upon those who lay full purses al

 their feet? We make merry over manag ing mammas, and hold up to ridicule al | their enticing snares and adroit maneuvres as if these were fair game for virtuous sat lirists. But why, indeed, should they no manage? As the world rates marriage and woman's s relation to it, it would seem te