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Here is a question that comes to me: "Don't you frankly believe that marriage is usually a hollow mockery? It promises much, but do you really believe that it often fulfils its promise?"

That question evidently comes from a pessimist, possibly from one who has tried marriage out, and because of his own failure believes that all marriages are a failure. That is the way we humans have of sizing a thing up,—by our own experience. Possibly the man who asks the question has merely observed marriage in others and thereby has grown cynical, become a crusty old bachelor.

Whoever he is, whatever his own personal experience, my answer is: Marriage is sometimes a hollow mockery, but in such cases it is due to the fact that it is entered into from wrong motives. Let us say from lust, or from convenience, or from the desire to have a home, or from parental pressure, or some other imperfect motive.