Page:Marriage Its Origin, Uses, and Duties.pdf/23

 of courtship, there would be fewer complaints of disappointed hopes and diminished happiness. When such results follow the consummation of the union, it may be concluded either that the affection has been altogether natural, or that any spirituality it possessed has been dissipated by the neglect or violation of the duties of the marriage covenant. Of the two affections from which marriage is generally contracted, the love of the sex is frequently more ardent than conjugial love; but having nothing of its singleness and purity, it has nothing of its constancy and endurance. Yet so long as that love is devoted to one object only, as in the time of courtship, and during the first days of marriage, it emulates conjugial love, as in its singleness, so in its delightfulness. There is this essential difference between natural and spiritual love, that spiritual love is the love of one only of the sex: natural love is inherently the love of variety, and languishes under that restriction which spiritual love delights in. True love can only exist in unity. To divide is to destroy it. From the moment that the chosen partner ceases to be loved with the whole affection, from that moment the real conjugial connection is dissolved, and with it all the true delight of marriage. The first duty, therefore, of married partners is to cherish that exclusive love for each other, on which their union and mutual happiness depend, and to guard against every temptation to weaken or divide it.

One of the duties on which union and happiness greatly depend, is that of acting in all things in