Is Adam kicking, Eve?  Take a hint before he kicks harder.  Is Eve making things warm for you, Adam?  Take care you jump not out of the frying pan into the fire.  Are circumstances plaguing you, Everybody?  Take the hint lest worse plagues arrive; learn wisdom and avoid the Red Sea.

Be not wise in thine own conceits. Lean not upon thine own understanding, but in all thy ways and thy neighbor’s ways, acknowledge that the One Good Spirit leads, and He shall direct thy feet in paths of peace and pleasantness.

The proof of foolishness is unrest and friction.

The proof of wisdom is peace.

Be still and know the Lord thy God, and learn from what He draws to thee.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE HEART OF WOMAN.

“My wife has fallen in love with another man.  She keeps house for me and I am trying to show her all the love I can but it seems to have no effect upon her.  I love her dearly and desire to win her back.  What should be my attitude toward her and toward the man?” A.J. (who is one of many who have thus written me.)

Goodness knows! Be good and you will know.  In other words, be just to all three before you are generous to anybody.  Of course that is not easy to do, but it is possible; and it is the only thing you can never be sorry for afterward.

First, get down to first principles.  There are three INDIVIDUALS concerned—­three separate and complete beings, each with his inherent right of choice.  Nobody owns anybody else; nobody “owes” anybody else anything in the way of “duty.”  Each individual stands on his or her own two feet and makes an effort at least to go where he or she will find the most happiness.

Every one of these three Individuals has made mistakes—­he or she has thought happiness was to be found in this place, or that.  He or she has made the choice and trotted on his or her two feet to this place or that, only to find happiness was not there as he or she supposed. We don’t always know what is for our happiness.  But goodness knows!—­and all our mistakes work together for ultimate happiness.

In the truest sense there are no mistakes; a mistake being simply a case where things failed to come out as we calculated. They came out right nevertheless.  That is, they came out right for our enlightenment.  By them we grew in wisdom and knowledge.  Next time our judgment will be better.

The wife in this case no doubt thinks just now that her marriage to A.J., was “all a terrible mistake.”  If so she is making another “mistake.”  That is, she is thinking what “ain’t so.”  Whatever experiences she has had with A.J. were drawn to her by herself, for her own enlightenment and development.  They were all good.

It may be that she and A.J. have gained from their association all there is in it.  Doubtless the wife thinks a separation and a new marriage would make her supremely happy.  May be it would.  May be her judgment is right this time.