This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XL COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. ADY, I wish you to study the beautiful image of mutual affection contained in the following lines: " Side by side we stood, Like two young trees, whose boughs in early strength Screen the weak saplings of the rising grove, And brave the storm together." And now, behold yonder two heights, between which rolls a furious river They are parted, and the " mining depths " so intervene that they can meet no more. Can you believe that those loving trees with their infolded branches, and these jagged rocks with their dark torrents, are images of the same thing ? Widely as they contrast, they are, nevertheless, both equally fitting figures of the marriage state: the former of a happy, the latter of an unhappy marriage. In the first, kindred spirits, governing their hearts by mutual wisdom, are united in blissful and pleasing affection; in the second, two unmatched souls are held in hateful contiguity by a legal bond, but divided in heart by a torrent of passionate aversion. If you are among the multitude who form their notions of love and marriage from sickly novels, from theatrical performances, and from flippant conversation, you probably question the correctness of my second figure. Marriage, to your uninstructed fancy, is a " seed of ineffable joy only. Its future is spread as a bright May day, and before your eyes golden years dance in bridal hours." "Thus, in the desert's dreary waste, By magic power produced in haste, As old romances say, Castles and groves, and music sweet, The senses of the trav'ler cheat, And stop him in his way. But, while he gazewith surprise, The charm dissolves, the vision dies; 'T was but enchanted ground." Thus will your ideal of married life be changed into a wilderness...