Married Life

Married Life; Its Shadows and
Sunshine

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Title: Married Life; Its Shadows and Sunshine
Author: T.S. Arthur
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4626] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 20,
2002]
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MARRIED LIFE:
ITS SHADOWS AND SUNSHINE
BY T. S. ARTHUR.
PHILADELPHIA:
1852.

PREFACE.

THE highest, purest, best and holiest relation in life is that of marriage,
which ought never to be regarded as a mere civil contract, entered into
from worldly ends, but as an essential union of two minds, by which
each gains a new power, and acquires! new capacities for enjoyment
and usefulness. Much has been said and written about the equality of
the sexes, and the rights of woman; but little of all that has been said or
written on this subject is based upon a discriminating appreciation of
the difference between man and woman; a difference provided by the
Creator, who made them for each other, and stamped upon the spirit of
each an irresistible tendency towards conjunction.
The many evils resulting from marriage do not arise from a failure in
our sex to recognise the equality of man and woman, or the rights of
the latter; but from hasty, ill-judged and discordant alliances, entered
into in so many cases, from motives of a mere external nature, and with
no perception of internal qualities tending to a true spiritual conjunction.
Oppression and wrong cannot flow from true affection, for love seeks
to bless its object.--If, therefore, man and woman are not happy in
marriage, the fault lies in an improper union, and no remedy can be
found in outward constraints or appliances. Let each, under such
circumstances, remove from himself or herself a spirit of selfish
opposition; let forbearance, gentleness, and a humane consideration, the
one for the other, find its way into the heart, and soon a better and a
brighter day will dawn upon them; for then will begin that true interior
conjunction which only can be called marriage. Happily, we have the
intellectual ability to see what is true, and the power to compel
ourselves to do what reason shows us to be right. And here lies the
power of all to rise above those ills of life which flow from causes in
themselves. To aid in this work, so far as discordant marriage relations
are concerned, and to bind in closer bonds those whose union is
internal, is the present volume prepared. That it will tend to unite rather
than separate, where discord unhappily exists, and to warn those about
forming alliances against the wrong of improper ones,