Remarks._

Marrying for Love.

In spite of all that the cynics and pessimists may say, Love should be
the Lord of Marriage.

"How sweet the mutual yoke of Man and Wife
When holy fires maintain Love's heavenly life!"

True happiness cannot exist without it, however great the wealth or
exalted the position of the married pair may be, while the worst evils
of life are lightened and made bearable by its presence. Marrying for
love need not mean improvidence. Only an unreasoning passion based on
selfishness will plunge the beloved into privation and want. The
highest, truest love has its substratum of common sense,
self-restraint, and thought for others.

It is very hard to draw the line, for vices and virtues tread somewhat
closely on each other's heels. The division between prudence and
cowardice is often ill-defined. The love that rushes into poverty that
it is not strong enough to endure, has in it an element of the
selfishness that makes another sit still in comfort while the path is
being made smooth for her soft tread.

There are those who laugh at love, and say that mutual respect and
sufficient means are the only two reliable things with which to enter
upon matrimony. Both these excellent possessions may, however, be
quite compatible with love, in fact the former is bound to be included
in the softer passion or it will not wear very well. No one will deny
that a marriage founded on mere mutual respect may one day be {118}
crowned by true and lasting love; nor yet that pre-matrimonial love may
die a speedy or even violent death soon after the lovers are united;
but these possibilities do not alter the fact that taking things all
round, Love is the best and most precious asset with which to begin
married life.

Marrying for Money.

There are many marriages that are casually put under this heading
which do not deserve to be. A man's position may be such that it will
mean ruin to him if he adds to his expenses by taking a wife without a
penny. He honourably refrains from making any advances to girls who
are so situated; but that does not prevent his becoming really
attached to one whose income will make married life possible for him.
The possession of money does not make a woman unlovable for herself,
though it may give her an unenviable experience at the hands of the
fortune hunter.

The cold, calculating nature that deliberately plans a mercenary
marriage is probably satisfied for the time being