The Young Lady's Counsellor by Daniel Wise

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COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 249
about. Inve should be discarded by sensible young
persons.
You and your suitor are not silly childrenj
but intelligent and immortal minds. You do not
meet to sigh and look foolish at each other, but to
grow into a high and holy unity of mind and heart
and your intercourse should be governed by this
exalted purpose.
Do not be in haste to marry. I favor early, but
not premature marriages. A girl of sixteen or
eighteen is unfitted in every respect to enter on
this state. Her physical organization, her mind,
her moral character, are alike unripe for it, and
will involve her in a net-work of pains, trials,
and griefs, of which she has little conception. No
young lady, except under very extraordinary cii
cumstances, should wed before she is twenty, and
twenty-two is a still better age. Wait, then,
my young friend, however solicitous your betrothed
may be to consummate your engagements;
Bid him improve his circumstances, cultivate hia
intellect, and lay sure and broad foundations for
your future happiness. Thus, doing all that human