There are strong physiologic reasons against long engagements: they keep the affections and the passions in an excited and unnatural condition, which after a time tends to weaken the nervous system and undermine the health. These evil consequences are common to both sexes. It is far better that the subject of marriage should not be entertained at all unless the circumstances are such that the union might with propriety be effected at once. The Right Time of the Year to Marry.-- When woman marries she enters upon a new life, and a very trying one. Extreme heat and extreme cold are both very taxing to the human economy. Midsummer and midwinter are therefore both objectionable, but especially the former. The Selection of the Wedding-day.-- This is by common consent left to the bride. She should select a time about ten or fifteen days after the end of one of her menstrual periods, as this is the time of comparative sterility, and it is most desirable that the first sexual relations should be fruitless. _________________ PART II.-- MARRIAGE. _________________ CHAPTER VII. THE ETHICS OF MARRIED LIFE. The Wedding Journey; the Ethics of Married Life; Shall Husband and Wife Occupy the Same Bed? the Comsummation of Marriage; the Marital Relation; Times when Marital Relations Should be Suspended. "If it is possible to perfect mankind, the means of doing so will be found in the medical sciences."-- DESCARTES. The Wedding-journey.-- The wedding-journey, which was formerly the cause of so much discomfort to both husband and wife, has fortunately gone out of vogue; and in its place has come the retirement to a quiet country or seaside spot, away from the prying eyes of friends. Thus the nervous strain incident to sight-seeing and travel is avoided. The Ethics of Married Life.-- It has been said that God set men and women in pairs in order that they might perfect each other and complete each other's happiness. The secret of all true happiness in life lies in the spirit of altruism; one must be able to wholly forget herself and to find her happiness in the welfare of others. The woman who exhausts herself physically and financially on the preparation of her trousseau and her wedding does her husband a wrong by bringing him a wife who is on the verge of nervous prostration. The secret of a happy married life depends to no small extent on the very beginning: the relation is so entirely new, and much lies hidden in the character of each that was never suspected by the other. Between husband and wife there must always be mutual concessions, forbearance, and sympathy; a mutual helpfulness to attain all that is best. This, of course, implies that the life of each is an open book for the other to read; that there is an unreserved exchange of thought; and that no privilege is claimed by the one that would not willingly be accorded to the other.