Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/193

Rh beyond expression in finding herself the wedded wife of the man in whom are centred, she would fain believe, all the virtues of his sex, a young woman is apt to forget that the new position in which she is placed is not without its trials. But she must remember that neither herself nor her husband is perfect. Both are young and inexperienced, with characters not yet fully developed, and the hereditary taint of selfishness uncorrected.

The first year after marriage is that which usually tries most severely the young wife, and awakens her to realities that sometimes, for a brief season, deeply sadden her spirit. It is by no means improbable that her husband suffers equally with herself. The cause lies in the fact that neither the one nor the other is faultless. Both, by nature, are selfish. They have this selfishness by hereditary transmission from their parents; and it cannot be removed until they have attained mature age, and then resist its perverting influences as evil. All their education