66 66 in the mean while biting his lips, pulled down his ruffles, stamped about the room, and looked at his lady like the devil. At last, he abruptly cried out, "What is the matter with you, madam?" 'Nothing!" replied the lady. "What is it you would make me, madam !" 'Nothing," was again the reply. "What is it I have done to you?" "O—h, nothing," was still the answer. And this quarrel arose as they sat at breakfast: the lady having very innocently observed, "She believed the tea was made of Thames water," and the husband, in mere contradiction, having insisted upon it that the tea kettle was filled from the New River. How necessary it is, therefore, that the newly married pair should stifle in the bud any expression calculated to wound the feelings of either. A contention about trifles is foolish, as one angry word begets another, and thus the harmony and peace of domestic life may be destroyed, perhaps for ever! for "One cruel taunt, one low ill-natured joke, Lose a good friend, or overturn a state." The Pleasures of Home. Before concluding this part of my subject, I deem it proper to remark, that every lover who takes unto himself a wife should daily evince to her, for his own advantage, the same attention, the same kindness of feeling, and the same affectionate regard after their nuptials as previously influenced his conduct; for rest assured, much of Courtship is required to be practised during Matrimony, especially those little pleasing attentions which show unabated attachment; as the roses of connubial bliss, like plants shut from the light, will soon cease to bloom, when deprived by cold neglect and indifference, of the genial sunshine of mutual affection. I cannot close these remarks more appropriately than by introducing the following beautiful stanzas from the pen of the accomplished author of "The Mind," Charles Swain : "Love! I will tell thee what is to love! It is to build with human thoughts a shrine, Above-the stars in shroudless beauty shine; And if there's heaven on earth, that heaven is surely this. Yes, this is love-the steadfast and the true:-- The best, the brightest boon the heart e'er knew: Oh, who but can recall the eve they met To breathe in some green walk their first young vow Whilst summer flowers with moonlight dews were wet, And winds sighed soft around the mountain's brow, And all was rapture then, which is but memory now." MATRIMONY. PART II. "A leafless, bare, and blighted thing, That flashes from a female soul. For heart to heart was born to beat, And soul with soul was made to meet, And sex for sex design'd to be The dawn of endless sympathy!" R. Montgomery. HAVING noticed the dark side as well as the sunny side of Courtship, the transition is natural to the subject of Matrimony. There are various opinions as to whether the single or married state is the happiest. The old bachelor avers there is nothing like a life of "single blessedness." He boasts of the free and easy manner in which he lives, unannoyed by the squalling of brats and the noisy volubility of a termagant partner. He asserts that he has no wish to be ruled by petticoat government-not he, indeed-no wish to be a woman's obedient slave, and bear with, what he considers, her unreasonable vagaries and caprice. He vaunts that he roves through the world unshackled by the bonds of matrimony, and cares for nobody; but, as Tennyson truly observes, "He that shuts Love out, In turn shall be shut out from Love." Accordingly, as Time advances, and the infirmities of age begin to tell upon his frame, how gladly he would recall the past, if he could, and give his vaunted freedom to secure, in his declining years, the attention of a loving woman. On a bed of sickness when suffering in body and mind, who is there then with a sympathising heart, will unbidden attend him, and, like a ministering angel, smooth his pillow by attending to his wants? Nobody. At last, when he pays the debt of nature, who is there then near and dear to him to drop a tear, and |