deed, and say to the woman, “God bless you.”  I propose to let her speak for herself today.  I propose to accept her invitation to accompany her through the various spheres of her domestic life, and see whether she alone is responsible for that vice and crime and misfortune which moralists and superintendents of penal and charity institutes trace back to neglects at home; whether it is always the wife and mother that is responsible for unhappiness in marriage and for the increase of divorces; whether the husbands and fathers are always the saints and martyrs, or whether they are not very, very often the root of the whole evil themselves.

We retrace our steps and begin with our observations of the husband and father a few months prior to that solemn day, on which he plighted his vows of protection and faithfulness, on which he took into his care and trust a woman’s life and happiness, on which he sacredly promised, in the name of God, and in the presence of witnesses, to love her, to honor and cherish her, to provide for her, to be faithful to her in all his obligations as husband, in youth and in old age, in sunshine and in darkness, in prosperity and in adversity.  We make first his acquaintance in the happy days of his courtship.  He is burning with love.  He is the facsimile of Shakespeare’s lover, “sighing like a furnace.”  Her praises are on his lips always.  He avows himself her slave and worships her as a goddess.  It is in her company alone that he can find happiness.  Whether at home or in society, he is always at her side.  Life is dreary where she is not.  He wonders how he could have lived so long, or how he could continue existence, without her.  How regular and how punctual he is in his calls, and how he scowls at the clock for running away with time so fast!  Not a wish does she express, no matter how unreasonable and extravagant, but he eagerly gratifies it.  How numerous his little attentions and his kind remembrances!  How thoughtful of her birthday, and how lavish in floral tributes and costly presents!  How numerous and how lengthy his letters when separated!  How sweet their moonlight walks and talks!  How bright her future, which he maps out!  How many the pledges which he breathes forth between his ardent kisses; never a harsh word shall break on her ear, never a wish of hers shall be ungratified, never a trouble shall mar her happiness; such a love as his has never been before, and will never be again; he only lives for her happiness; his affection will never cool, he will be a lover all his life; their whole wedded life will be one never-waning honeymoon.

In the drama the plot usually ends with marriage.  At the instant when it is reached, when all obstacles are removed, the curtain falls, and the young people have no further existence for us.  But in the practical world the play goes on.  The curtain rises again, the same personages reappear, only they frequently play different parts, and what was before a comedy or a melo-drama often changes into a tragedy.  Sad and tearful scenes are often enacted by them.  The misery and pain are no longer inflicted by their former enemy, but by their own hands.  He, who prior to marriage overcame almost insurmountable obstacles to make his lady fair his happy wife, now moves heaven and earth to make that wife as miserable as possible.