It is a strange world and man is a strange animal. It may appear wonderful that with such passions and powers as he possesses he should be so controllable, that he should become tamed down into a civilized being, and submit to such impositions on his desires, that make him a mere creature of circumstance; and yet from this very submission does he secure to himself the greater amount of joys and delights: so that what he partakes of by tolerance, or call it the unanimous consent of his fellow-men, is absolutely and infinitely more gratifying to him than would be the unrestricted indulgence of his appetites. The world abounds with inexhaustible sources of enjoyment, and man has capacity for all; but were it not for civil and wholesome restraints, it would be one continued brute struggle for possession. For no one circumstance have we more reason to rejoice in our civilization, than for the regulations regarding marriage. It is the basis of a nation’s prosperity and of individual happiness. It gives legal and strong possession of the object of our most earnest wish. It establishes regulation and order, forms ties of relationship, and makes each country one family. A happy marriage is the alpha and omega of every man’s hopes, nor is it less momentous to our companion. There is no pleasure in this life comparable to it where it is unalloyed by physical or mental disqualifications: but alas! how rarely is such a consummation to be found. It is a happy state indeed “when the fountain is blessed, and he rejoiceth with the wife of his youth, and she is to him as the loving hind and the pleasant roe, and he delights in her continually.”[30]