IF A PAINTER WISHED TO DRAW THE VERY 11 Page 120. PREFACE. IN offering the following hints of advice, it must not be supposed that I speak merely to the newly-married pair; for in those moments of early love, a husband and wife are to each other generally all that could be wished. No! my admonitions extend to that sober period when novelty has lost its attraction, and the ardour of youthful affection has abated. Previous to a perusal, a mutual promise should be made, that if the husband reads with attention the Whisper addressed to HIM, his wife will read, with equal attention, the Whisper addressed to HER. And each should remember, that of all the pleasures that endear human life, none are more worthy the pursuit of a rational creature than those which flow from mutual returns of conjugal love. A happy marriage comprehends all the pleasures of friendship, all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and all the sweets of life. "To live without feeling or exciting sympathy," says Dr. Johnson; "to be fortunate without adding to the felicity of others, or afflicted without tasting the balm of pity-is a state more gloomy than solitude: it is not retreat, but exclusion, from mankind." |