THE highest, purest, best and holiest relation in life is that ofmarriage, which ought never to be regarded as a mere civil contract,entered into from worldly ends, but as an essential union of twominds, by which each gains a new power, and acquires! new capacitiesfor enjoyment and usefulness. Much has been said and written aboutthe equality of the sexes, and the rights of woman; but little ofall that has been said or written on this subject is based upon adiscriminating appreciation of the difference between man and woman;a difference provided by the Creator, who made them for each other,and stamped upon the spirit of each an irresistible tendency towardsconjunction.
The many evils resulting from marriage do not arise from a failurein our sex to recognise the equality of man and woman, or the rightsof the latter; but from hasty, ill-judged and discordant alliances,entered into in so many cases, from motives of a mere externalnature, and with no perception of internal qualities tending to atrue spiritual conjunction. Oppression and wrong cannot flow fromtrue affection, for love seeks to bless its object.—If, therefore,man and woman are not happy in marriage, the fault lies in animproper union, and no remedy can be found in outward constraints orappliances. Let each, under such circumstances, remove from himselfor herself a spirit of selfish opposition; let forbearance,gentleness, and a humane consideration, the one for the other, findits way into the heart, and soon a better and a brighter day willdawn upon them; for then will begin that true interior conjunctionwhich only can be called marriage. Happily, we have the intellectualability to see what is true, and the power to compel ourselves to dowhat reason shows us to be right. And here lies the power of all torise above those ills of life which flow from causes in themselves.To aid in this work, so far as discordant marriage relations areconcerned, and to bind in closer bonds those whose union isinternal, is the present volume prepared. That it will tend to uniterather than separate, where discord unhappily exists, and to warnthose about forming alliances against the wrong of improper ones,the author is well assured.
This book is the second in the series of "ARTHUR'S LIBRARY FOR THEHOUSEHOLD." The third in the series will be "THE TWO WIVES; OR, LOSTAND WON," which is nearly ready for publication.