_Boswell_: "Pray, sir, do you not suppose that there are fifty women in
the world, with any one of whom a man may be as happy, as with any one
woman in particular?" _Johnson_: "Ay, sir, fifty thousand." _Boswell_:
"Then, sir, you are not of opinion with some who imagine that certain
men and certain women are made for each other, and that they cannot be
happy if they miss their counterparts." _Johnson_: "To be sure not, sir.
I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if
they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of
the characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice
in the matter."
_Boswell's Johnson, p. 283._
--_Samuel Johnson._
1289
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.
--_Cowper._
1290
When a man and woman are married their romance ceases and their history
commences.
1291
Wedlock, indeed, hath oft compared been
To public feasts, where meet a public rout,
Where they that are without, would fain go in,
And they that are within, would fain go out.
--_Sir J. Davis._
1292
Marriage somewhat resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot
be separated, often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing
anyone who comes between them.
--_S. Smith._
1293
_Marry in your own Rank._ Wise was the man, ay, wise indeed, who first
weighed well this maxim, and with his tongue published it abroad, that
to marry in one's own class is best by far, and that a peasant should
woo the hand neither of any that have waxed wanton by riches, nor of
such as pride themselves in high-traced lineage.
--_Aeschylus._
1294