ung man in his teens. This is well. He is made better and happier by
his boyish loves--for he generally has a succession of them, but they
are seldom permanent. They are only beautiful foreshadowings of the
deeper and more earnest love of manhood, which is to bind him to his
_other self_ with ties which only death can sever. Read Ik Marvel's
"Dream Life."

Before a young man has reached the proper age to marry--say
twenty-five, as an average--he ought to have acquired such a knowledge
of himself, physically and mentally considered, and of the principles
which ought to decide the choice of matrimonial partners and govern
the relations of the sexes, as will enable him to set up a proper
standard of female excellence, and to determine what qualities,
physical and mental, should characterize the woman who is to be the
angel of his home and the mother of his children. With this knowledge
he is prepared to go into society and choose his mate, following
trustingly the attractions of his soul. Love is an affair of the
heart, but the head should be its privy counselor.

Do not make up your mind to wait till you have acquired a fortune
before you marry. You should not, however, assume the responsibilities
of a family without a reasonable prospect of being able to maintain
one. If you are established in business, or have an adequate income
for the immediate requirements of the new relation, you may safely
trust your own energy and self-reliance for the rest.

Women reach maturity earlier than men, and may marry earlier--say (as
an average age), at twenty. The injunction, "Know thyself," applies
with as much emphasis to a woman as to a man. Her perceptions are
keener than ours, and her sensibilities finer, and she may trust more
to _instinct_, but she should add to these natural qualifications a
thorough knowledge of her own physical and mental constitution, and of
whatever relates to the requirements of her destiny as wife and
mother. The importance of sound _health_ and _a perfect development_,
can not be overrated. _Without these you are_ NEVER _fit to marry_.[P]

Having satisfied yourself that you really love a woman--be careful, as
you value your future happiness and hers, not to make a _mistake_ in
this matter--you will find occasion to manifest, in a thousand ways,
your preference, by means of those tender but delicate and
deferential attentions which love always prompts. "Let the heart
speak." The heart you address will