This proposition is always met by a host of social difficulties which perplex the inquirer, and finally quiet the conscience of society into a passive acquiescence in evil customs. These difficulties, however, must be met and overcome. It is cowardly not to face them, and weak not to vanquish them. Wise early marriage is the natural and true way out of disorder and license into the providential order of human existence. The first condition of improvement is to accept this plan as a living faith, not an abstract ideal; to consider how difficulties can be removed, not be cowed by them; and to study the possibilities, not the impossibilities. It leads to diametrically opposite practical action, whether we dwell upon the advantages of a certain course of life and strive in every way to attain it, or whether we lose ourselves in doubts and discouragements. ‘Put your shoulder to the wheel, and call upon Hercules to help,’ is the only true plan now, as in the days of Æsop. It is a matter of every-day experience that if we resolutely determine to do a thing, and steadily apply the common-sense and intelligence (the germs of which exist in every human being) to its accomplishment, success will follow. The difficulties urged are the foolishness of first love; the impossibility of providing for a family; the craving for wild adventure, excitement, change. These are the spectres which bar the entrance to the right way of life. But such arguments are all false. They are founded on the sandy basis of removable conditions--on false methods of education, narrow family exclusiveness, on lack of self-control, vicious customs, and perverted tastes. All sound argument, based on the permanent facts of human nature, enjoins us to provide for early marriage as the basis of social good. The young man accustomed from boyhood to mix freely with young women under honourable conditions, is no longer bewildered by the first woman he meets, whilst the free, friendly companionship, secured by the family circle with its wide connections, has supplied a want that his growing nature craves; his taste and judgment have grown and strengthened, and he is no longer the victim of baseless fantasies. Accustomed to free association with young women of his own class, he is able at an early age to know his own mind and make a wise selection of his future partner. To the young woman an early marriage is the natural course of life; to this end she tends, and, consciously or unconsciously, prepares herself to secure it according to the requirements of society. Her unperverted taste is for the young man a little older than herself--a companion she can admire, respect, and, love--but still a companion, not a father. If taught by the silent though still powerful voice of society that harmony of character, of aims, of temperament--_i.e._, mental attraction--is the indispensable foundation of great and lasting happiness in marriage;