And this, in fact, is not
personal in the sense of individual, but ever a manifestation of
universal affection. Spite of the speculations of hopeful bachelors and
aesthetic spinsters, there is somewhat in the marriage bond which is
found to counteract the universal nature of the affections to a degree
tending at least to make considerable pause, before they can be blended
into one harmony.
The general condition of married persons at this time is some evidence
of the existence of such doubt in their minds. Were they as convinced
as the unmarried of the beauty and truth of associate life, the
demonstration would be now presented. But might it not be enforced that
the two family ideas really neutralize one another? It is not quite
certain that the human heart cannot be set in two places; that man
cannot worship at two altars? It is only the determination to do what
parents consider the best for themselves and their families, which
renders the o'er populous world such a wilderness of selfhood as it is.
Destroy this feeling, they say, and you prohibit every motive for
exertion. Much truth is there in this affirmation. For to them no other
motive remains, nor indeed to any one else, save that of the universal
good, which does not permit the building up of supposed self-good, and,
therefore, forecloses all possibility of an individual family.
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