an object is dependent upon our
determination. Effort is a matter of will. Failure is a product
of misdirected determination."

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

The Best Age at Which to Marry--Incompatibility of
Temperament--A Happy Marriage Need Not Be a Successful One--The
Evils of Early Marriage--The Wedding Night, its Medical
Aspect--The Honeymoon--When Marital Relations are
Painful--Times when Marital Relations Should be Suspended--The
First Weeks and Months of Wifehood--The Formative Period--A
True Marriage--A Wife's True Position in the Household--Only
Five Per Cent. of Happy Marriages--Period of
Adaptation--Differences of Opinion--Differences of
Principle--The Attainment of Success--Arguing Trifles--You Must
Know What You Want--The Right Kind of Wife--Contributing to Her
Husband's Efficiency--What Are the Requisites of
Efficiency--Good Health--Thoroughly Cooked Meals--Rest at
Night--Having a System--Enough Exercise--Freedom from Worry--Do
Your Part--The First Quarrel--Fault Finding--The Husband's
Efficiency Depends Upon the Wife--Work Must be Interesting--The
Wife's Part.

THE BEST AGE AT WHICH TO MARRY

In order to determine the best age at which to marry, we must be guided
by certain fixed standards. We must find out from statistics the average
age of the parents of the best babies. We must determine and analyse the
qualifications of what constitutes the "best" babies, according to the
eugenic ideal. We should give heed to the fixity of temperamental
characteristics in order to determine their adaptability to conditions
that prevail at certain ages. We should select an age in advance of the
period at which science has determined individuals to have outlived any
hereditary tendencies.

We have abundant proof that the best babies are born of parents between
the twenty-third and the twenty-sixth years. We know also that the age
which responds, with the fullest degree of plasticity, to temperamental
characteristics, is in the early twenties. We know, likewise, that
inherited tendencies may be said to have been outlived at or about the
twenty-second year. The ideal marrying age, therefore, is, for both male
and female, approximately the twenty-third year.

The physical, mental and moral development of both men and women, at
this period, evidence a high degree of adaptability, and are responsive
to the institution of marri