Don't Marry: Advice on How, When and Who to Marry

It is not intended to advise against marriage, nor to draw the line too closely as to the don’t-marry class, but simply to hint at the errors of some persons who match badly on so long a contract. The “yes or no” question is the vital one for all young people to answer. Some answer too soon, others wait too long, others never reach such a climax of happiness as to be invited by an eligible partner. The genius of selection is the rarest of faculties. What most puzzles the will and makes us bear the ills we have is the theme of selection. A mother’s or father’s view of a suitor may be at variance with the daughter’s wish and destroy the peace of both for a lifetime. But quite generally the real trouble arises from a spiteful choice or a hasty one, or one in some of the forms here mentioned. Should these hints prevent one unhappy marriage, they will well repay the little study that their brevity requires. To avoid much lecturing, only two examples are given at any length, in the form of stories. These are as near to the real characters as the writer can safely relate them, being founded on actual romantic and unromantic marriages. As marriage is the first question that every family will discuss, it is well to treat it with exact candor.