es say that they are satisfied
with their condition, and do not desire to change it. In this pretension
there lies more truth than people in general believe, particularly when
the lively feelings of early youth are past. I have often found it so;
and above all, wherever the woman, either in one way or another, has
created for herself an independent sphere of action, or has found in a
comfortable home that freedom, and has enjoyed that pure happiness of
life, which true friendship, true education, can give.

A young lady of my acquaintance made what was with justice called a
great match, although love played but a subordinate part. As some one
felicitated her on her happiness, she replied, quite calmly, "Oh, yes!
it is very excellent to possess something of one's own." People smiled
at her for her thus lightly esteeming what was universally regarded so
great a good fortune; but her simple words, nevertheless, contain a
great and universal truth. It is this "one's own," in the world, and in
his sphere of action, which every man unavoidably requires if he would
develop his own being, and win for himself independence and happiness,
self-esteem, and the esteem of others. Even the nun has her own cell,
where she can prepare herself in peace for heaven, and in which she
possesses her true home. But in social life, the unmarried woman has
often not even a little cell which she can call her own; she goes like a
cloud of mist through life, and finds firm footing nowhere. Hence,
therefore, are there often marriages the genuine children of necessity,
which ought never to have taken place, and that deep longing after the
deep quiet of the grave, which is experienced by so many. But there is
no necessity for this, and in times, in which the middle classes are so
much more enlightened, it becomes still less so; we need, indeed, only
contemplate the masses of people who strive for a subsistence, the
crowds of neglected and uncared-for children that grow up in the world,
in order to see that whatever is one-sided in the view of the
destination of woman vanishes more and more, and opens to her a freer
sphere of action.

But I return to the _pros_ and _cons_ of my own life, one feature of
which I must particularly mention. If young ladies of our acquaintance
connected themselves by marriage with men who were rather above than
below them in property or station, we considered it, without exception,
reasonable and estimable. But if a man, w