The last infirmity of error that would fasten itself on society, to see it hop and hobble under a new burden of guilt, is named “free love”; wherein “they declare their sin as Sodom, and hide it not,” but the boldness of depravity will show its deformity. A union of the masculine and feminine mind seems requisite for completeness; the former reaches a higher tone from communion with the latter; and the latter gains courage and strength from the former; therefore, these different individualities meet and demand each other, and their true harmony is oneness of Soul. Woman should be loving, pure, and strong. Man, tender, intellectual, controlling; the attraction between the sexes will be perpetual only as it is pure and true, and like the seasons, brings its sweet changes and renewal. Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the demands of the affections, and should never waver the balance against the more honest claims of intellect, goodness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love; it is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires an object to cherish. Our affections are not poured forth vainly, when meeting no return; they enrich the being, enlarging, purifying and elevating it. The wintry blasts of earth may transplant the flowers of affection, or scatter them to the winds; but sundering ties of flesh, unites us to God, where Love supports the struggling heart, until it ceases to sigh over earth, and folds its wings for heaven.
Marriage is blest or unblest, according to the disappointment it incurs, or the motive it fulfills. To happify existence by constant intercourse with those adapted to elevate it is the true motive for marriage;
