a great mind to some water, but they would
not leap into the well, because they could not get out again." Why were
they wise? They were not wise at all. I have seen frogs in wells who are
more contented than they would be outside. "Men are April when they woo,
December when they wed," says Shakspeare; but he also says that "maids
are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives,"
so it is an even tilt between two forms of human nature. "If idleness be
the root of all evil," says Vanbruch, "then matrimony is good for
something, for it sets many a poor woman to work." "In the opinion of
the world," says Madame Swetchine, "marriage ends all; as it does in a
comedy;

THE TRUTH IS PRECISELY THE REVERSE.

It begins all. So they say of death, 'It is the end of all things.' Yes,
just as much as marriage!" "Humble wedlock," says St. Augustine, "is far
better than proud virginity." "Never marry but for love," says William
Penn, in his will; "but see that thou lovest what is lovely!" "Strong
are the instincts with which God has guarded the sacredness of
marriage," says Maria McIntosh. We cannot bear this remark too
constantly in mind. You would not dare shut off your supply of water,
because you know you will need it. But you are sometimes tempted to shut
off your supplies of love; and men do sometimes do it, and

AFTERWARD GO MAD

from clear soul-starvation. "Up to twenty-one I hold the father to have
power over his children as to marriage," says Coleridge; "after that age
he has authority and influence only. Show me one couple unhappy merely
on account of their limited circumstances, and I will show you ten who
are wretched from other causes." "He that takes a wife takes care,"
says Ben Franklin. "I chose my wife," says Goldsmith, "as she did her
wedding gown, for qualities that would wear well." "Before marriage,"
says Addison,

"WE CANNOT BE TOO INQUISITIVE

and discerning in the faults of the person beloved, nor after it too
dimsighted and superficial. Marriage enlarges the scene of our happiness
and miseries.

A MARRIAGE OF LOVE

is pleasant; a marriage of interest easy; and a marriage where both
meet, happy. A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendship,
all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and, indeed, all the sweets of
life." "It is the policy of the Londoners," says Thomas Fuller, "when
they send a ship into the Mediterranean Sea, to make every mariner
therein a merc