judgment--when they are carried away captives by some
outward, worthless attraction, rather than by solid and useful
qualities--their success will, indeed, depend on blind chance. But
there is no necessity for so great a hazard. A young man, or a young
woman, may positively know beforehand, whether they will draw a
prize or a blank. In fact, they may select the _prizes_ without any
mistake, and let the _blanks_ go for what they are worth. Let them
exercise but an ordinary degree of judgment, sound discrimination
and good sense, and there will be no danger of drawing a blank.

When a young man has attained to a suitable age, and is engaged in
some honest and useful occupation, whereby he is in possession of
means to maintain a family, it then becomes not only a privilege,
but a _duty_, to select a wife, to be the sharer of his joys
and his sorrows. In making this choice, he should act calmly,
deliberately, and thoughtfully. He should bear in mind that he is
selecting, not for a day, or a year, but for all life. The object
of his affections should be one, who will live pleasantly with
him, and make him happy, not for a few months only, but during long
years to come, when the romance of marriage shall have been
succeeded by the cares and struggles of maturer life. She should be
one of whom he can say, in the words of the poet:--

"Oft as clouds my path o'erspread,
Doubtful where my steps should tread,
She, with judgment's steady ray,
Marks and smooths the better way."

There is no greater folly than to select a wife for mere personal
beauty alone. Beauty will always have its attractions; and when
connected with an amiable disposition and useful qualifications,
its influence, cannot be objected to. But when unaccompanied with
these characteristics, its power is to be resisted, and the heart
steeled against all its fascinations. The young man who permits
himself to fall so desperately in love with a lady, on account of
mere personal beauty, as to marry her, despite the counsel of his
friends, and when he himself sees, or might see, a sad want of
other and more valuable qualifications, commits an error, the
wretched effects of which will be experienced through life. When
this outward beauty loses its charm and passes away, as it will
in a brief space of time, what has he left? A cross-grained,
ill-natured, fault-finding, petulant, selfish wife, who will prove
a "thorn in his side," during all his days,