The Young Lady's Counsellor by Daniel Wise

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COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 233
But, while he gazes with surprise,
The charm dissolves, the vision dies
»T was but enchanted ground.
Thus will your ideal of married life be changed into
a wilderness by experience, unless it be entered upon
with wisdom and precaution.
Marriage is a high and holy state, designed oy its
almighty Author to promote the heahh, happiness,
purity and real greatness of our species. It is
proper, therefore, for you to desire it, to prepare
yourself for it, and to accept it, under fitting circumstances.
It is equally improper for you to fancy that
you cannot be truly happy in a single state, or to
hastily accept the first ofTer that you may receive,
lest you should never have a second. Better, far
betler, will it be for you to live and die unwedded
than to give your hand and person to one vvho is
ansuited to your disposition, or unfitted, by bad
habits,
to make you a happy wife ; or than to enter so
responsible a relation without those mental and
moral qualifications wrhich are essential to its enjoyment.
A single life is not without its ad /antages