wisdom, by steadiness, by forbearance, by meekness, she may be to him a tower of strength. But no tongue can tell the ways in which she may annoy and render him wretched.

The first thing to be watched over is the temper. Short of an absolute control of this, there is no happiness in married life. Resentment, just so far as it exists, and so long as it lasts, destroys that state of feeling, which constitutes the happiness of those who are connected by the most sacred tie. The proper affection finds its satisfaction in perpetual demonstrations of kindness. But what an altered and an awful condition of things when a state of feeling has arisen, which finds its highest gratification in crossing and vexing one another! Is it not highly dangerous then to indulge in such a state of feeling for a single moment? Alas! that there should be two human beings so mad and so unprincipled as to pursue such a course of conduct as this!

It is said, that there are few happy matches. Dr. Watts indeed, a century ago, wrote a celebrated poem under this title. If it be a fact, it is the blackest record against

humanity. Those who enter into the marriage relation with true attachment, and become unhappy, are the most unfortunate and criminal of mankind, and they have none to blame but themselves. They are suicides in a double sense. One of the worst indications of the moral condition of our country, is the number of applications for divorce which are annually made to the legislatures in the different states. By this indication it would seem that we have sunk below even heathen morality. Such a thing as a divorce was not known in the Roman state for four centuries from its foundation. I never see an account of a case of this kind without picturing to myself the deep misery which must precede, accompany, and follow such a proceeding. You never read the details of a divorce, except in cases of gross immorality, without recognizing the fact, that the great cause of connubial unhappiness is want of mutual forbearance and self control.

As a wife's control over her husband's happiness is almost unlimited, so is her influence over his fortunes. Some women make it a matter of pride and of boast that they

govern their husbands, and consider it a mark of their superiority. The very attempt is a proof of the contrary. It is only the foolish and the weak that can ever even wish to do so. Such a boast is equally disgraceful to both parties. The will too, often bears an inverse proportion to the other powers of the mind. And you sometimes find women who seem to be little else than the incarnation of a fierce and indomitable will. Such women will have their way it is true, because a wise man will sacrifice much for peace. But it is no more government than it is when a mob gets the mastery of a town. They govern it is true, because all government is suspended.

A woman has her husband's fortunes in her power, because she may, or she may not, as she pleases, conform to his circumstances. This is her first duty, and it ought to be her pride. No passion for luxury or display ought for a moment to tempt her to deviate in the least degree from this line of conduct. She will find her happiness and her respectability in it. Any other course is wretchedness itself, and inevitably leads to ruin. Nothing can be more miserable than the

struggle to keep up an appearance. If it could succeed, it would. cost more than it is worth, and as it never can, its failure involves the deepest mortification. Some of the sublimest exhibitions of human virtue have been made by women, who have been precipitated suddenly from wealth and splendor to absolute want. It costs perhaps the mightiest struggle which the mind can make to conform at once and without a murmur to altered circumstances; but when it is over, it brings its own rich reward. There is no other way but to submit, and begin to spin the web of hope and endeavor anew.

Then a man's fortunes are in a manner in the hands of his wife, inasmuch as his own power of exertion depends on her. His moral strength is inconceivably increased by her sympathy, her counsel, her aid. She can aid him immensely by relieving him of every care which she is capable of taking upon herself. His own employments are usually such to require his whole time, and his whole mind. A good wife will never suffer her husband's attention to be distracted by details, to which her own time and talents are adequate. If she be prompted

by true affection and good sense, she will perceive when his spirit is borne down and overwhelmed. She of all human beings can best minister to its needs. For the sick soul her nursing is quite as sovereign, as it is for corporeal ills. If it be weary, in her assiduity it finds repose and refreshment. If it be harassed and worn to a morbid irritability, her gentle tones steal over it with a soothing more potent than the most exquisite music. If every enterprise be dead, and hope itself almost extinguished, her patience and fortitude have the power to rekindle them in the heart, and he again goes forth to renew his encounter with the toils and troubles of life.

A woman has it in her power to add greatly to a man's respectability in the world, and to determine his social position. Indeed his pleasant relations with society depend mainly on her wisdom, her prudence, her kind and conciliatory manners. She cannot make herself odious and contemptible without reflecting ill will and disgrace upon him. She cannot indulge in a meddlesome, censorious, bitter, vindictive disposition, without subjecting him to continual mortifi