The Ten Commandments of 300 Years Ago

World wars among the nations of the earth come and go, but the wars between husbands and wives remain forever in full swing — never quieting, never coming to rest!...

Among the most famous things ever written on marital happiness is a book that appeared in the seventeenth century, in which the author gracefully tells the story of a wise queen who married her daughter, the princess, to a king in a distant land, and sent along with her — together with her sumptuous royal trousseau — ten commandments to secure her marital happiness. Here is their text:

1. Beware his anger.
2. Prepare him good food.
3. See to his comfort at night.
4. Be wise in spending from his fortune.
5. Do not divulge his secrets.
6. Draw his friends near and keep his enemies far.
7. Be moderate, and consult him in your private affairs.
8. Do not multiply your demands.
9. Give him at once what he asks.
10. Do not fill him with jealousy...

These are commandments that the queen mother wrote for her daughter the princess 300 years ago... They may move many of today's girls to laughter... and they may move many a husband to sigh and recall the golden ages, when woman was subject to her husband's will, body and soul... Yet none of them can help admitting that these ten commandments hold a great deal of deep wisdom, and that they touch on the most important problems that arise between man and woman and cloud the serenity of their life together.

Had this queen mother been able to write her commandments for her daughter the princess in this age, her outlook would have differed entirely from what it was 300 years ago, for great changes have come over the family in this stretch of time and have altered the way husband and wife look at each other, and the way they look at marriage and at life...

And if we go back to the essence and foundation of these commandments, we find we need them today just as we needed them yesterday, 300 years ago. Yet if we consider the grave domestic and family changes sweeping the world today, we can only set to work anew, to draw up a second set of ten commandments that will serve home and family better than the first.