"A man finds himself seven years older, the day after his marriage,"
says Lord Bacon. "Men should keep their eyes wide open before marriage,
and half shut afterwards," says Madame Scuderie. "Marriage is a feast,"
says Colton, "where the grace is sometimes better than the dinner."
"Mistress," cries Shakspeare, "know yourself; down on your knees, and
thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love. For I must tell you
friendly in your ear,--sell when you can; you are not for all markets."
"To love early and marry late," says Richter, "is to hear a lark singing
at dawn, and at night to eat it roasted for supper." "Marriages are best
of dissimilar material," says Theodore Parker.
"TO BE A MAN
in a true sense," says Michelet, "is, in the first place, and above all
things, to have a wife." "It is in vain for a man to be born fortunate,"
says Dacier, "if he be unfortunate in his marriage." "When it shall
please God to bring thee to man's estate," says Sir Philip Sidney, "use
great providence and circumspection in choosing thy wife. For from
thence will spring all thy future good or evil; and it is an action of
life, like unto a stratagem of war; wherein a man can err but once!" "We
are not very much to blame for our bad marriages," says Ralph Waldo
Emerson;
"WE LIVE AMID HALLUCINATIONS,
and this especial trap is laid to trip up our feet with, and all are
tripped up, first or last. But the mighty mother nature, who had been so
sly with us, as if she felt she owed us some indemnity, insinuates into
the Pandora box of marriage some deep and serious benefits and some
great joys." "It is a mistake to consider marriage merely as a scheme of
happiness," says Chapin; "it is also a bond of service. It is the most
ancient form of that social ministration which God has ordained for
human beings, and which is symbolized by all the relations of nature."
"Marriage" says Selden, "is a desperate thing;