which may lead a young
woman to marry, were perhaps a hopeless task. So complex are our motives
that it is difficult to analyze them correctly, or even to say with
confidence what was the sole motive operating on the mind in any
particular action. This difficulty is increased, where the affections
are concerned. They are too subtle and ethereal in their nature, to be
subjected to minute examination. I shall, therefore, only promise in
this chapter to endeavor, as I am able, to treat of a part of the
reasons for marriage, as they affect most persons in actual life.

At the head of these stands the fear of being Single. There is supposed
to be some latent and terrific evil in remaining unmarried. The
imagination of the girl depicts its loneliness, its desolation, the
blight it must shed on every gentle and happy emotion, the reproach it
must bring on her from her entire circle of acquaintances, and the pride
with which her more successful companions will look down upon her. These
and other features in the picture become so fearful to contemplate, that
she resolves to embrace the first opportunity to escape so awful a
dilemma. She will engage herself as soon as practicable, lest she should
outstand her day, and be left in the dread condition of an "old maid."
Hence a train of miseries.

To prevent this calamity,--for it often proves a serious one,--I would
recommend the culture of two virtues, Faith, and Moral Courage.

There is no cause for a young woman, in any ordinary circumstances, to
fear that she shall be left single. How very few are they, who deserve
the attentions of the other sex, and yet never receive any overtures for
marriage. Where the means of support are so equally distributed, and
where girls are so well trained, as they are usually in this country,
nearly every young man is married, and of course finds somewhere a
companion. Have then Faith that you will not be neglected. This will do
much to inspire that modest conduct, which attracts so powerfully the
opposite sex. It will also lead you to a course of steady preparation,
in all respects, for marriage, and thus both insure your entrance on
that state, and qualify you for its duties.

Cultivate Moral Courage. It is better to wait this year and next, and
many years, rather than, for the sake of appeasing the popular cry, to
throw yourself away on a dolt, or a villain. What consolation can it be,
when bound to such a companion for life, to reflect, tha