Page:Science and Health.djvu/320

316 wedlock gives pinions to joy, or trails its drooping wings in dust. Notes are illy arranged that produce discord; tones of mind may be different, but they should be concordant, to blend harmoniously. Unselfish ambition, nobler motives for existence, increased harmony, happiness and usefulness, because the different elements of mind meet and mingle, finding in union there is strength — is the true marriage. Let there be moral freedom in wedlock; never contract the limit of worthy deeds by a selfish exaction of all one's time and thoughts. With additional joys, benevolence should grow more diffusive, for the narrowness and jealousy that would confine a wife or husband forever at home, will not promote the sweet interchange of confidence that comes of love; while a wandering desire for incessant amusement outside the home circle is a poor augury for happiness. Home is the dearest spot on earth, and should be the center, but not the boundary of the affections. Said the peasant bride to her lover, “Two eat no more together than when they are separate,” and this should furnish the hint, that a wife ought not to enter into vulgar extravagance, or stupid ease, because another supplies her wants. Wealth may obviate the necessity for toil or ill nature in the marriage relation, but nothing can shirk its cares. “She that is married careth for her husband, how she may please him,” and this is the very thing it is pleasant to do. Matrimony should be entered into with a full recognition of its enduring obligations, and the most tender solicitude for each other's happiness and approbation should wait on all its years. Mutual compromises preserve a compact that might otherwise become burdensome. Man should