aughter. This condition satisfied,
behold the ideal marriage.

It is probably fair to say that the three strongest and most important
needs of a man's nature are those which are satisfied by mother, wife,
and daughter. Primarily, perhaps, his wife must be to him his wife, his
contemporary and partner, and there must be a physical bond between
them. (Doubtless there are many happy marriages where this primary
condition is not satisfied, this primitive form of affection being
substantially absent, and its presence being proved non-essential: but
such must be a state of unstable equilibrium at best, though the
concession must be made.) Now the problem for the wife is to unite in
her person and in her personality those other feelings which are part of
normal human nature. Every man likes to be mothered at times, and it is
for his wife to see that she performs that function better than any
other; better even than his own mother. Where he finds merely physical
satisfaction, he also finds, happy man, sympathy and comfort, protection
and solace, balm for wounded self-esteem--everything that the hurt or
slighted child knows he will find in his mother's arms.

Yet again, a man likes not only to be mothered but he likes to play the
father. Let his wife be a daughter to him; let her be capable of
shrinking, so to say, into small space, becoming little and confident
and appealing and calling forth every protective impulse of her
husband's nature.

To one who knew nothing of human nature it might sound as if we were
asking more of womanhood than is within its capacity. But many a man and
many a woman will know better. The right kind of woman can be and is
mother, wife and daughter to her husband; and in every one of these
capacities she strengthens her hold in the other two. Let the happily
married examine their happiness, and they will discover that the
Preacher was right when he said: "and a threefold cord is not quickly
broken."

What has here been said is perhaps far more fundamental, just because it
is based upon the primary instincts of humanity, than much of the
ordinary talk about intellectual companionship and the like. What a man
wants is sympathy, not intellectual companionship as such; what a man
wants from another man, indeed, is sympathy, and not merely intellectual
parity as such. The man who annoys us is not he who is incapable of
appreciating our arguments, or he who does not share our knowledge, but
he who is o