Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/198

190 Let every young wife remember, that, to be truly happy, both herself and her husband must be governed by religious principles in all their conduct towards each other and society. If they give themselves up to a mere life of pleasure, they will commit a great mistake; for pleasure, sought as an end, always defeats itself. To do this is to act from mere selfishness—a motive entirely unworthy of the human mind. The majority of young persons who marry do not seem to have any idea of the true importance of the relation they have assumed. It does not seem to strike them as a very serious matter, or as involving duties and responsibilities of the most weighty character. They love, and, in simply attaining the object of their love, believe that they have arrived at the summit of happiness, and that happiness must continue to be theirs so long as this object is in possession. But, there being in this so much of mere selfishness, it is no wonder that, in a very short time, the scales fall from their eyes, and they are made sensibly to feel that something more is required of them than idly to rest in the supreme felicity of loving and being beloved.

It usually takes as long a period as a year to correct the misconceptions of a young married couple; and during this time, they often feel the