And here we must protest against the foolish and cowardly ridicule that is sometimes bestowed upon elderly men and women who, using the liberty of a free country, have abstained from marrying. Certainly some of them could give reasons for spending their lives outside the temple of Hymen that are far more honourable than the motives which induced their foolish detractors to rush in. Some have never found their other selves, or circumstances prevented the junction of these selves. And which is more honourable--a life of loneliness or a loveless marriage? There are others who have laid down their hopes of wedded bliss for the sake of accomplishing some good work, or for the sake of a father, mother, sister, or brother. In such cases celibacy is an honourable and may be a praiseworthy state. To make "old maid" a term of reproach has mischievous results, and causes many an ill-assorted marriage. Girls have been hurried into marriage by the dread of being so stigmatized who have repented the step to their dying day. The sacredness of marriage and the serious responsibilities it brings are either ignored altogether or but lightly considered when marriage is represented as the only profession for women. There is no truth in Brigham Young's doctrine that only a woman _sealed_ to a man in marriage can possibly be saved. Let mothers teach their daughters that although a well-assorted marriage based upon mutual love and esteem may be the happiest calling for a woman, yet that marriage brings its peculiar trials as well as special joys, and that it is quite possible for a woman to be both useful and happy, although youth be fled, and the crowning joys of life--wife and motherhood--have passed her by or been voluntarily surrendered. But this fact that celibacy has many consolations need not prevent the conclusion that as a rule married life is to be preferred. "Jeanie," said an old Cameronian to his daughter, who was asking his permission to marry--"Jeanie, it's a very solemn thing to get married." "I ken that, father," said the sensible lassie, "but it's a great deal solemner to be single." Marriages are made in heaven: matrimony in itself is good, but there are fools who turn every blessing into a curse, like the man who said, "This is a good rope, I'll hang myself with it." CHAPTER III. MARRIAGE-MADE MEN. "A wife's a man's best peace, who, till he marries, Wants making up.... She is the good man's paradise, and the bad's First step to heaven."--_Shirley._ "Th' ever womanly Draweth us onward!"--_Goethe._ "This is well, To have a dame indoors, that trims us up, And keeps us tight."--_Tennyson._ If there be any _man_--women are seldom anti-matrimonial bigots--who seriously doubts that the _pros_ in favour of marriage more than counterbalance the _cons_, we commend to his consideration a few historical instances in which men have been made men in the highest sense of the word by marriage.