Golden Steps to Respectability, Usefulness and Happiness: Being a Series of Lectures to Youth of Both Sexes, on Character, Principles, Associates, Amusements, Religion, and MarriageAustin, John Mather
Philosophy
Golden Steps to Respectability, Usefulness and Happiness: Being a Series of Lectures to Youth of Both Sexes, on Character, Principles, Associates, Amusements, Religion, and Marriage
Austin, John Mather
Conduct of life
Moreover, I would caution young men against allowing their hearts
to be taken captive under circumstances where they are especially
exposed to deception. A young woman may exhibit a fine appearance
in a ball-room--may be very attractive at a party, and cut a
fashionable and dashing figure in the public streets, and still
make a poor, good-for-nothing wife. These are the last places in
which choice should be made of a companion, to render aid and
comfort amid the struggles of life. Whenever your attention is
attracted by a young lady, study her in the family circle--learn
her domestic qualifications. Is she a respectful, dutiful, loving
daughter? Is she a kind and affectionate sister? Does she manifest
a noble, generous, friendly spirit? Does she exhibit delicacy,
refinement, and purity in her tastes and manners? Is she
industrious, economical, and frugal in her habits? Will she be
likely to assist you in husbanding your income, and taking care of
your earnings? Is she thoroughly versed in all domestic affairs, so
that she herself could do all things connected with household
matters, should necessity require it? These, I acknowledge, are
very ordinary, very homely inquiries; but nevertheless they are of
the highest importance. A young man who will marry, without having
thoroughly made all such investigations, and becoming satisfied
that his intended is not deficient, to any great extent, in these
qualifications, is blind to his own highest good, and will in long
after-years, amid domestic inquietude, and family troubles, indulge
unavailing regrets at his blindness and folly. But whenever a young
woman can be found, possessing these invaluable characteristics, I
would advise the youth seeking for a companion, to win her for a
wife if possible. Although she may be plain in person, and poor in
property, yet she will be of more worth than rubies; and all riches
cannot be compared with her. She will be a faithful friend and wise
counsellor, and will smooth the rugged pathway of life. However the
world and its affairs may go without, he who has such a wife, will
ever have a home, where neatness and comfort, peace and love, and
all that can yield contentment and enjoyment, will smile upon him!
All the care, discrimination, and judgment urged on young men in
selecting wives, I would commend to young ladies, in accepting
husbands. If to the former, marriage is an important event, fraught
with consequences lasting as life, it is peculiarly so to the
latter. It surely is no trivial event for a daughter to leave the
home of her childhood, the tender care and watchful guardianship of
kind parents, the society of affectionate brothers and sisters, to
confide herself, with all her interests and her happiness, to
another with whom she has hitherto associated only as a friend. Is
it not necessary to exercise prudence, forethought, discretion, in
taking a step so momentous?
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