ever fascinating. It is new and
fresh to the hearts of the youthful and aged. A few words upon the
marriage day in the early New England will not be without interest.
September 9, 1639, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony passed
a law ordering intentions of marriage to be published fourteen days at
the public lecture, or in towns where there was no lecture the
"intention" was to be posted "vpon some poast standinge in publique
viewe." On this same day it was ordered that the clerks of the several
towns record all marriages, births and deaths. This was a wise
provision. It at once taught the people of the beginning and of the
designed stability of the new-founded government.

The course of true love did not run smooth in these early days any more
than to-day. Parents were desirous of having sons and daughters
intermarry with families of like social standing and respectability. But
the youth and maid often desired to exercise their own freedom and
choice. On May 7, 1651, the General Court ordered a fine and punishment
against those who "seeke to draw away y'e affections of yong maydens." In
the time of Louis XV, of France, the following decree was made: "Whoever
by means of red or white paint, perfumes, essences, artificial teeth,
false hair, cotton, wool, iron corsets, hoops, shoes, with high heels,
or false tips, shall seek to entice into the bonds of marriage any male
subject of his majesty, shall be prosecuted for witchcraft, and declared
incapable of matrimony." The fathers of New England may have made
foolish laws, but this one in France at a later time goes beyond them.
The seductive charms of the sexes they deemed could not be trusted.
Wonderment often comes to us of the thoughts and manners of the sage
law-makers when their youthful hearts were reaching out after another's
love.

The marriage day was celebrated with decorum. The entire community were
conversant of the proposed marriage, for the same had been read in
meeting and posted in "publique viewe." The earliest lawmakers of the
Colony were pillars in the church, and though they did not regard
marriage an ordinance over which the church had chief to say, yet they
desired an attending solemnity. In 1651 it was ordered that "there shall
be no dancinge vpon such occasions," meaning the festivities, which
usually followed the marriage, at the "ordinary" or village inn.

The marriage of widows made special laws needful. Property was held in
the name