A young man meets a girl at a party; her beauty captivates him, and he proceeds to wed her with-out having understood her nature.

Another may hear of a rich girl and covet her fortune, to invest it in what will bring him profit, without giving the owner of the money any weight in his heart. And there is the young man whom rank allures; he inclines toward it and proceeds to marry for love of the rank, not of the wife. So the first weds beauty, the second money, and the third rank.

These are examples of incidents in marriage that occur from time to time. And marriage after this fashion is a dangerous adventure that may lead to the worst of consequences, for want of the basic principle on which the marriage bond rests. By this principle I mean sincere, mutual love — a love that depends, for its nourishment, its strengthening, and its endurance, upon a mutual harmony between the man and the woman in principles, inclinations, and feelings, such that accord and respect are established, and forbearance obtains in many matters that might be the spark of a family tragedy were they to occur between two spouses with no proportion between them in understanding, character, fortune, and rank.

Therefore, among the most impor-tant things to which a young man must attend, if he proceeds to marry and wishes to be happy in a society such as this, founded upon social distinctions and ranks, is to choose the girl whose station accords with his station, her char-acter with his character, and her inclinations with his inclinations. Then is he safe from the calamity of giving free rein to his appetites,

and assured of a family future wrapped about with contentment, blessing, and happiness.

What is said of the young man in choosing a wife is said of the girl in choosing her companion; and the girl's position in this matter may be more delicate than the young man's, for reasons there is no room to mention here. In many circumstances, however, the girl ought to be left the choice in deciding her own destiny, and not be forced into marriage with a man she recoils from because her parents' interest requires such a marriage. Then, if I may offer a counsel in this regard, it is to beware of the young man given to drink and gambling — two plagues that have never crept into a house without destroying it utterly.

There remains the matter of age, which is among the gravest matters for the destiny of family happiness; and the best that can be said in this regard is that fathers should beware of marrying their daughters to men who far exceed them in years, for the harm that follows from this disparity in many respects.

The Causes That Delay Marriage

Sociologists attempt to carry all the questions of civilization back to economic principles and to treat them from that side; and on this basis it may be said that the first cause delaying marriage is a purely economic one. The truth is that a great number of our young men — most of them clerks and officials — do not possess money enough to run a household. Then too, the evolution of social life in this age, and the rise in the cost of living and the multiplication of its demands that follow upon this evolution, have greatly affected

people's ideas and inclinations. They have come to look at life from a new angle, and a man is no longer content to be today what he was yesterday. This has made the young man and the young woman each aspire to a milieu other than the milieu in which he lives: he is not content with a companion of his own station in wealth and lineage, nor is she content with a young man whose financial condition falls short of satisfying her ambitions. And the inevitable result is that the two parties pass the finest days of their lives apart. The young man watches for fortune's favor and strives after it; while the girl takes for her sole consolation the poet's wisdom, "How narrow life would be, but for the wide space of hope"!

There is, however, a cause other than money that stands hesitating before marriage — I mean the multitude of amusements and the many avenues of pleasure, above all in this age, when the fashions of the Western arts, in all their variety, have come flooding in upon us and have taken captive the feelings of the young men, affecting their condition and their activity, until a man believes, or inclines to believe, that life is play, and that happiness — if happiness there be — is to be found by a man in the café, not in the home. It is a tendency which, it is to be feared, may strike root in men's souls and destroy the best of what the homeland asks of its faithful sons.

As for the claim that bachelor life is a life of freedom and gaiety, it is a claim open to doubt; nor do I think that he who takes this line believes in its soundness, or could support his claim with reasonable proofs. To remove the causes that delay marriage is difficult, and it is not within our power to attack them directly; but they can be lightened when economic and agricultural enterprises multiply, and when the clubs of physical sport grow more numerous