It would be an easy task to continue this chapter much farther, by attempting to pourtray the beauty and virtue of marriage, and endeavouring to enforce the obligation of it on all who are proper subjects to engage in it, but we will now close the chapter by saying, that the instincts of nature yearn towards the opposite sex. We long to love and be loved. We feel that within us which inclines us to seek the society of the other sex; a monitor that warns us to refrain from unhallowed love: and a voice which invites us to seek that state of matrimony, which is sanctioned by human and divine law. CHAPTER III. THE HAPPY STATE OF MATRIMONY. Without doubt the uniting of hearts in holy wedlock is of all conditions the happiest; for then a man has a second self to whom he can reveal his thoughts, as well as a sweet companion in his labours, toils, trials, and difficulties. He has one in whose breast, as in a safe cabinet, he can confide his inmost secrets, especially where reciprocal love and inviolable faith is centred: for there no care, fear, jealousy, mistrust, or hatred can ever interpose. For base is the man that hateth his own flesh! And truly a wife if rightly considered, as Adam well observed, is or ought to be esteemed of every honest man as “Bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh,” &c. Nor was it the least care of the Almighty to ordain so near a union, and that for two causes; the first, for the increase of posterity; the second, to restrain man’s wandering desires and affections; nay, that they might be yet happier, when God had joined them together, he “blessed them,” as in Gen. ii. An ancient writer, contemplating this happy state, says, in the economy of Zenophon, “that the marriage-bed is not only the most pleasant, but profitable course of life, that may be entered on for the preservation and increase of posterity. Wherefore since marriage is the most safe, and delightful situation of man, he does in no ways provide amiss for his own tranquillity who enters into it, especially when he comes to maturity of years.” Enviable is the state of that man who has fixed his choice upon a virtuous, chaste wife, centring her entire love upon her husband, and submitting to him as her head and king, by whose directions she ought to steer in all lawful courses, will like a faithful companion, share patiently with him in all his adversities, run with cheerfulness through all difficulties and dangers, though ever so hazardous, to preserve or assist him in poverty, sickness, or whatever misfortune may befall him, acting according to her duty in all things.