My advice is: Marry a man who is a fortune in himself. Houses, lands,
and large inheritance are well enough, but the wheel of fortune turns
so rapidly that through some investment all these in a few years may
be gone. There are some things, however, that are a perpetual
fortune--good manners, geniality of soul, kindness, intelligence,
sympathy, courage, perseverance, industry, and whole-heartedness.
Marry such a one and you have married a fortune, whether he have an
income now of $50,000 a year or an income of $1000. A bank is secure
according to its capital stock, and not to be judged by the deposits
for a day or a week. A man is rich according to his sterling
qualities, and not according to the mutability of circumstances, which
may leave with him a large amount of resources to-day and withdraw
them to-morrow. If a man is worth nothing but money he is poor indeed.
If a man have upright character he is rich. Property may come and go,
he is independent of the markets. Nothing can buy him out, nothing can
sell him out. He may have more money one year than another, but his
better fortunes never vacillate.