Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/170

162 what another means. In most cases, these opinions are based upon the evil or good that has happened to result from what are considered early marriages, in instances that have fallen under the notice of those who advocate or condemn, instead of flowing from a knowledge of the true laws that ought to govern in marriage.

The writer is an advocate of early marriages between men and women—not between boys and girls. That which makes man truly a man, and woman truly a woman, is rationality—not the legal age. Freedom from the restraints of youth, and an acquirement of the legal rights of majority, are very far from giving this. It comes from experience, to which have been added thinking and observation. Nothing is seen in its true aspect when we first enter upon life; and it is only after our judgments have been matured by a few years of experience, that we can really see things around us in their true relation one to the other. A few years, too, makes us see not only deeper into what is without us, but also into what is within us; and scarcely a month of this period passes without our being led to correct some error or misconception into which we had fallen. If, during this period, mistakes are constantly made in matters of trivial importance, what security is there that a mistake will not be made