new life, and a trying one. Every
advantage should be in her favour. The season is one of those
advantages. Extreme heat and extreme cold both wear severely on the
human frame. Mid-winter and mid-summer are, therefore, alike
objectionable, especially the latter.
Spring and fall are usually chosen, as statistics show, and the
preference is just. On the whole, the spring is rather to be recommended
than the autumn. In case of a birth within the year, the child will have
attained sufficient age to weather its period of teething more easily
ere the next summer.
THE RIGHT TIME IN THE MONTH TO MARRY.
We mean the woman's own month, that which spans the time between her
periodical sicknesses, be it two or five weeks. Let her choose a day
about equidistant from two periods. The reasons for this we shall
specify hereafter.
THE WEDDING TOUR.
Custom prescribes a journey immediately after marriage, of a week or a
month or two. It is an unwise provision. The event itself is disturbance
enough for the system; and to be hurried hither and thither, stowed in
narrow berths and inconvenient carriages, troubled with baggage, and
annoyed by the importunities of cabmen, waiters, and hangers-on of every
description, is enough, in ordinary times, to test the temper of a
saint.
The foundation of many an unhappy future is laid on the wedding tour.
Not only is the young wife tried beyond all her experience, and her
nervous system harassed, but the husband, too, partakes of her weakness.
Many men, who really love the women they marry, are subject to a slight
revulsion of feeling for a few days after marriage. 'When the veil
falls, and the girdle is loosened,' says the German poet Schiller, 'the
fair illusion vanishes.' A half regret crosses their minds for the jolly
bachelorhood they have renounced. The mysterious charms which gave their
loved one the air of something more than human, disappear in the prosaic
sunlight of familiarity.
Let neither be alarmed, nor lose their self-control. Each requires
indulgence, and management, from the other; both should demand from
themselves patience and self-command. A few weeks, and this danger is
over; but a mistake now is the mistake of a lifetime. More than one
woman has confessed to us that her unhappiness commenced from her
wedding tour; and when we inquired more minutely, we have found that it
arose from an ignorance and disregard of just such little precautions as
we have been refe
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