hose who are
subject to their influence. He that paints the experience of human
life in brilliant colors only gives a flattering and deceptive
representation,--he may just as well pretend that the heavens are
always cloudless. People soon discover that there are sorrows in the
world as well as joys, unpleasant as well as pleasant events; hence
arises the advantage of examining, of pointing out, and endeavoring
to avoid "the ills which flesh is heir to." The perpetuity of marriage,
under pleasing circumstances, is its most lovely character; but the
same peculiarity, under a different aspect, is its principal source of
misery. It is too frequently a state of bondage, "which thousands once
fast-chained to quit no more." But what exists, and cannot be removed,
should always be borne as patiently as possible; and thus we may keep a
cheerful heart, when another, less prudent, would be gloomy. Besides, an
ill temper makes every condition of life unhappy; a cheerful disposition
will throw a gleam of sunshine over the scenery of a November day. Some
people, very foolishly, make themselves uneasy because they are bound.
Sir Jonah Barrington seems to think it a natural propensity. He
says,--"The moment any two animals, however fond before, are fastened
together by a chain they cannot break, they begin to quarrel without
any apparent reason, and peck each other solely because they cannot get
loose again." But it must be remembered that people enter into marriage
with a knowledge of the permanency of the union, and perhaps they seldom
repent, except they had been deceived; and this we may hope would not
occur frequently. After the Romans had introduced a law of divorce, no
respectable person, for the space of forty years, availed himself of it.
Divorcement was much practised among the Jews, and was productive of
great evil. One of the Jewish doctors asserted, that if a man beheld a
woman who was handsomer than his wife, he might put away his wife and
marry her; and thus all the wives in Judea, except the handsomest, might
have been divorced. Josephus observes, on one occasion, very
coolly,--"About this time I put away my wife, who had borne me three
children, not being pleased with her manners."

One cause of unhappiness in a married state, is too little affection;
and in other instances, although affection may be possessed, it is not
shown. Montesquieu observes, "that women commonly reserve their love for
their husbands until their