ll be, what a guarantee for the improved happiness
of the human race, when couples will be allowed to associate on trial,
say, for a few months! Yes, but how many will remain married? And then,
what will become of the human race?

This not being legal now, or, if you prefer, not accepted by the rules
of proper society, let us examine the case a bit.

Should couples study each other's characters during a long period of
engagement? Alas! how could they be hopeful of success when, after ten
years of married life, they often discover they were not made for each
other? I have known English couples who had been engaged ten years
trying to find out if they were fit for each other. Poor couples! they
might have been engaged fifty years without any more chance of success.
Life during an engagement means the daily repetition of an old story:
sentimental walks. The sky is serene, the sea is smooth. As I say
elsewhere, they will never know they are good sailors until they have
been together on board the same boat in a good big storm--no, not until
misfortunes have come to try them, not until they have been confronted
with bills for meat and coal and the price of butter. Besides, long
engagements should be avoided, because if they do not end in matrimony
the prospects of a woman may be ruined.

Make your inquiries about your possible future partners, about their
antecedents, their family, their social and financial position. If your
partner is healthy (make sure of that), make up your mind quickly.
Marriage is a lottery; go in for it at once and take your chance.

A woman should avoid accepting a man who has been particularly
successful with women. At the same time, she should look for one to
whom woman is not an enigma, and who is a man of the world and of
strong character, so that she may feel sure that when he chose her, he
said to himself: 'I know my mind; happiness for me lies there.' On that
man she will be able to depend and lean safely.

As peace and security are the guarantees of happiness in matrimony, a
man should not choose a lovely rose who will attract the attention of
all the men, but look for a modest violet in some retired, shady spot.
The violet is the emblem of peaceful and lasting love.

A woman should avoid marrying a man who at home is the favourite of
many sisters who constantly dance attendance on him. That man is
spoiled for matrimony. He will require his wife to bestow on him all
the attentions he rec