Page:The Dignity of Human Nature.djvu/83

Rh and deprives himself of an opportunity of gaining and fixing the affections of a virtuous and amiable person, raised by him to a rank above her expectations, and thereby inspired, if she is not wholly void of goodness, with such a sense of gratitude to her benefactor, as must influence all her actions.

On the other hand, nothing is more dreadful than the prospect those people have, who from romantic love, run precipitately into an engagement, that must hold for life, without considering or providing for the consequences. Two young persons, who hurry into marriage, without a reasonable prospect of an income to support them and their family, are in a condition as wretched as any I know of, where a guilty conscience is out of the question. Let a man consider a little, when he views the object of his passion, to whom he longs to be united by a sacred and indissoluble bond, how he will bear to see those eyes, every glance of which makes his heart bound with joy, drowned in tears, at the thought of misery and poverty coming upon her; how he will bear to see that face, whose smile rejoices his soul, grown pale and haggard through anguish of mind; or how he will bear to think that the offspring, she is going to bring forth, is to be born to beggary and misery. If young people consider maturely the fearful consequences of marriage, where there is no prospect of a proper provision, and where the anguish of poverty will be the more intolerable, the more sincere their affections are; they would not run headlong, as we often see them, into misery irretrievable.

It may often happen, that the family and connexions with which a woman is engaged, may alone be of more advantage to a man than a fortune; as on the other hand, it may happen, that a woman of fortune, may be so given to expense, or may bring with her such a tribe of poor relations, as thrice the income of her fortune would not be sufficient to maintain. In either of these cases, a man's prudence is to direct him to make that choice which will be the best upon the whole.

It is a fatal error in the conduct of many young people in the lower ranks of life, to make choice of young women, who have been brought up in indolence and gaiety, and are not possessed of fortunes suitable to the manner of life they nave been accustomed to. The probable consequence of such matches, is great and remediless misery.