to keep up an unnatural
cheerfulness? If I am extravagant, is it wise or just to be always
sounding the praises of economy? Why profess a taste for reading, when I
loathe the sight of a sober volume? Why force myself up to a pitch of
neatness, when my wardrobe would, by a single glance, prove me a
slattern?

It is hard, it seems cruel, to require these painful disclosures, to
roll clouds over the sun of the matrimonial sky. But is not even this
better than to suffer a dense mass to accumulate, which shall at length
break in storm, and thunder, and desolation, upon the devoted pair? We
are both weak and wicked, if we deliberately lay a train, that must at
length explode, and cause decrepitude, if not matrimonial death, to one,
who is about committing his entire happiness to our hands.

No marriage can be consummated, with a fair prospect of good, except
between individuals, who have made it a point of principle to disclose
to each other their entire characters. New scenes may develope new
dispositions unfriendly to perfect harmony. But these can be met and
successfully encountered, if there were no intentional deception, if
there were an earnest desire and effort to show frankly every fault,
that did really exist before marriage. Any efforts to engage the
affections of another by false appearances will inevitably abate thus
much from the future happiness of those who make, or are misled by,
them. All that is termed "Courting," so far as that word implies
assumption, pretence, and flattery,--and it too often means nothing
more,--should be sacredly avoided. Nature alone can lay the basis of an
enduring superstructure; art, affectation, disguise, and concealment,
are but a sure presage of bitter regrets.

The intercourse we describe would be pervaded by mutual Esteem and
Respect. It would prevent the habit of trifling on the concerns of the
affections, and render the conversation worthy of the holy relation now
contemplated, and such as could be reviewed with satisfaction. From
their taking just views of one another, there would be sincerity,
confidence, and a rational, ever-growing, attachment, between the
individuals thus situated. Their most private hours would be marked by
perfect delicacy, modesty, and propriety, of deportment. In public, no
occasion would be given for remarks on their silly and sentimental airs,
while all would perceive evidence of a mutual and deep interest between
them, and predict, as they ough