Marry one whom you trust, admire, respect, look up to, and confide in, can be true to, and one whom you love from good and earnest motives. “Respect is a cold lunch in a dark dining-room. Love is a picnic in the woods.” Think of a picnic and an old man escort! _Don’t marry too old._ Be in earnest about it. Here is the thought in a nut-shell: TOO OLD TO LOVE. I. “I never loved but one,” she said; “I loved him just for fun,” she said; And, saying this, she swung her head-- Had she been frank, they had been wed. I saw her at a ball that night, Her eyes so dark and face so white, Her tone and manner wild delight; I knew she served him not aright. II. “I am too old to love,” she said; “The one I loved in fun is dead! I plant these flowers above his head, Here lies my idol, dead!” she said. “’Tis sad to think it might have been; ’Tis sadder yet to feel my sin. Love learns too late; but then, but then, He loved me once--the best of men. III. “I never see a pure, good face, Nor painting outlines ever trace, But he is near, his love is dear, Had I been earnest; he were here!” She veiled her dark eyes with her hand; I turned away,--“True love is grand,” I murmured, in an undertone; “Life gives no more than love of one.” _Don’t marry odd sizes._ A tall man with a little woman looks awkward enough; but a tall woman with a little, tiny man is a misfit, surely. See if you can’t find someone of your size, as the school-lads say in a wrestle. Pair off like soldiers in time of dress parade, with an eye to unity. This caution relates to extremes, of course, and not to small variances. Some change and grow portly after marriage, but none get very much taller after twenty-four. Just for the looks of the thing, pair off in uniform lines. _Don’t marry a man or woman without a character._ Soon enough you’ll see the value of this caution. Character is a matter that grows through a lifetime, but enough of it crops out early to be noticed. One is known not only by his company but by his habits, his tastes, and his inclinations. It is said that some whole families are born fast; some thievish, some inclined to crabbedness, others mild, upright, honest, and reliable. It runs in the blood in some cases. Suppose one is to marry for virtue, purity, and uprightness, he will seek it in the blood as much as he would look for quality in a racer. If a woman loves a rakish “man of the world,” so called,--a name too often used to varnish a bad character,--she will very easily find him around the different bar-rooms of almost any crowded hotel in the city or village. He will be after marriage what he was before.