best pursuits of man,
Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace,
Domestic life in rural pleasure pass'd."

Marriage is frequently an union of interest: the happiness of one is
made a source of enjoyment to the other. It is for life, because it is
most agreeable with the inclination of mankind that friendship, esteem
and love should be permanent. In this instance a continuance of the
union constitutes no small part of the bliss. The expectation of a
durable connection makes men careful, otherwise they would marry and
unmarry every week. There is, by the arrangement of the Almighty, a
comparative power or influence vested in the man, because, agreeably
with all good government,--

"Some are, and must be, greater than the rest;"

but then, as Dr Beattie observes, "the superiority vested by law in the
man is compensated to the woman by that superior complaisance which is
paid them by every man who aspires to elegance of manners." And besides
this, the husband has frequently the nominal, while the wife has the
actual power:--

"Like as the helme doth rule the shippe,"

so she regulates all the household affairs. This is proper, when the
husband allows it; and he ought to do so, when his wife is capable of
managing these things; but when the inclinations of his Eve run
perversely, when he is conscious that he has reason on his side, and she
only folly, and yet he is vacillating and yielding, he is unmanly and
inconsistent; he sacrifices future happiness to present peace. Every
woman, it must be granted, is not a sensible one; and "there is
nothing," as Lord Burleigh observed to his son, "more fulsome than a she
foole." If Socrates had properly controlled his Xantippe before her
disorder had increased beyond cure, it would have contributed to her
happiness and his own. Prince Eugene observed, on one occasion, rather
satirically, that love was a mere amusement, and calculated for nothing
more than to enlarge the influence of the woman, and abridge the power
of the man. Goldsmith's Hermit said to his lovely visiter,--

"And love is still an emptier sound,
The modern fair one's jest;
On earth unseen, or only found
To warm the turtle's nest."

But love is an actual, a powerful, and a beneficial principle, if it be
properly regulated. Among married persons there ought to be as much love
as would induce either to yield in trifling matters; and there ought to
be as much reason as would enable both to