Searchlights on Health: The Science of EugenicsJefferis, B. G. (Benjamin Grant)
Philosophy
Searchlights on Health: The Science of Eugenics
Jefferis, B. G. (Benjamin Grant)
Eugenics; Hygiene; Marriage; Medicine, Popular; Sexual ethics
ADVICE TO THE MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.
1. MARRYING FOR WEALTH.--Those who marry for wealth often get what
they marry and nothing else; for rich girls besides being generally
destitute of both industry and economy, are generally extravagant
in their expenditures, and require servants enough to dissipate a
fortune. They generally have insatiable wants, yet feel that they
deserve to be indulged in everything, because they placed their
husbands under obligation to them by bringing them a dowry. And then
the mere idea of living on the money of a wife, and of being supported
by her, is enough to tantalize any man of an independent spirit.
2. SELF-SUPPORT.--What spirited husband would not prefer to support
both himself and wife, rather than submit to this perpetual bondage
of obligation. To live upon a father, or take a patrimony from him, is
quite bad enough; but to run in debt to a wife, and owe her a living,
is a little too aggravating for endurance, especially if there be not
perfect cordiality between the two, which cannot be the case in money
matches. Better live wifeless, or anything else, rather than marry for
money.
3. MONEY-SEEKERS.--Shame on sordid wife-seekers, or, rather,
money-seekers; for it is not a wife that they seek, but only filthy
lucre! They violate all their other faculties simply to gratify
miserly desire. Verily such "have their reward"!
4. THE PENITENT HOUR.--And to you, young ladies, let me say with great
emphasis, that those who court and marry you because you are rich,
will make you rue the day of your pecuniary espousals. They care not
for you, but only your money, and when they get that, will be liable
to neglect or abuse you, and probably squander it, leaving you
destitute and abandoning you to your fate.
6. INDUSTRY THE SIGN OF NOBILITY.--Marry a working, industrious young
lady, whose constitution is strong, flesh solid, and health unimpaired
by confinement, bad habits, or late hours. Give me a plain, home-spun
farmer's daughter, and you may have all the rich and fashionable
belles of our cities and villages.
6. WASP WAISTS.--Marrying small waists is attended with consequences
scarcely less disastrous than marrying rich and fashionable girls.
An amply developed chest is a sure indication of a naturally vigorous
constitution and a strong hold on life; while small waists indicate
small and feeble vital organs, a delicate constitution, sickly
offspring, and a short life. Beware of them, therefore, unless you
wish your heart broken by the early death of your wife and children.
[Illustration: UNTIL DEATH US DO PART.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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