PART XVII.
Marriage.
harmony of temperament and education.
The union of two moral and intellectual beings, linked by a pure love, in conjugal relation, is a sublime conception of Christianity and civilization. "Those whom God has joined together, let not man put asunder," Man and woman thus joined become a unit. Their thoughts, their actions, their will, should all tend to cohesion. This cohesion can be maintained only by harmony of temperament and of education. Discordant temperaments and different educations will force a married pair asunder perpetually, and end only in the destruction of the compact made on the very altar of God. The disregard or the want of these elements of cohesive moral force in persons who join in marriage renders their union a mistake, if not a crime. We often see persons, who, although joined with the sincerest intent to fulfill their duty to each other, and with hope of happiness beating high within their bosoms, fall suddenly apart, from incompatibility of temperament or education. This incompatibility will cause attritions and jarrings, which eventually intensify into explosions of bad temper, conducing to separation and crime.
A son, dutiful and amenable in his parents' home, a daughter, a very angel in her father's household, join in wedlock; and the occasion is one of great rejoicing among the parents and friends. Only a few months, and the daughter returns to shed tears on her mother's bosom, whispering sad accusations against her husband. The son returns downcast, with knitted brow, to his parents' home;
