cured "by lucky chance!" And he who waits for fortune to throw him such a prize, will be compelled to exercise for a long time one virtue at least-patience! As the industrious ant raises its mimic mountain by diligently heaping mite upon mite, so must every man rear the superstructure of a good character, by a long and unwavering succession of kind, virtuous, and honorable actions! The Creator has wisely ordained that every man shall reap as he sows. If he sows integrity, honesty, goodness, love to God and man, he shall without fail, in due time, reap honor, respectability, the confidence of his fellow-men, and the indwelling sunshine of an approving conscience. But if he prefers to sow falsehood, deceit, and the various species of dishonesty and immorality, he will as surely be compelled to gather a harvest of ignominy, disgrace, ruin, and wretchedness! It requires but one discerning glance at the world, to perceive that these just laws of Heaven are in constant and unswerving operation throughout all ranks in society. He who is wise, will be admonished by the disappointments, the failures, the wretchedness of others, to be cautious, and sow as he desires to reap. TO WIVES. CHAPTER I. RIGHT VIEWS OF THE MARRIAGE STATE, "Life is but a day at most, Sprung from night, in darkness lost : Fear not clouds will always lower." THE young wife, in entering the marriage state, has materially changed her circumstances in life. She has left the paternal roof-the counsels and admonitions of a kind father-the oft-repeated precepts and the gentle restraints of an affectionate mother-and commenced walking in a path which is, to her, new and all unknown. She has thus arrived at the second of the three great eras in lifebirth being the first, and death the last. Marriage is a momentous period in the existence of woman. It is full of interest, and fraught with the most important consequences. In looking back, faithful memory will enable her to trace her way through childhood and youth, amid scenes bright with the rosy smiles of innocence, and filled with the gayety and joyousness so suitable to young hearts. The retrospection may bring tears of pleasing melancholy into her eyes, and cause her to exclaim, in the poet's language "I leave thee, father!-eve's bright moon Must now light other feet, With gathered grapes, and the lyre in tune, Thou in whose voice, to bless thy child, Whose eye o'er all my youth hath smiled- Mother! I leave thee !-on thy breast, I have found that holy place of rest Lips that have lull'd me with your strain, In looking forward, other and different scenes open before her. New circumstances, new relationships, new duties, obligations, and responsibilities, present themselves to her consideration, and direct her thoughts more intensely into the dim haze of an untried future. In thus looking forward, with the mind filled with fond hopes and high expectations, the youthful imagination delights to paint the coming years of life with bright scenes of unalloyed enjoyment-and to picture matrimony as "A pleasing land Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye, For ever flushing round a summer sky." But it is seldom that the imagination represents |