When a young man has attained to a suitable age, and is engaged in some honest and useful occupation, whereby he is in possession of means to maintain a family, it then becomes not only a privilege, but a duty, to select a wife, to be the sharer of his joys and his sorrows.  In making this choice, he should act calmly, deliberately, and thoughtfully.  He should bear in mind that he is selecting, not for a day, or a year, but for all life.  The object of his affections should be one, who will live pleasantly with him, and make him happy, not for a few months only, but during long years to come, when the romance of marriage shall have been succeeded by the cares and struggles of maturer life.  She should be one of whom he can say, in the words of the poet:—­

    “Oft as clouds my path o’erspread,
     Doubtful where my steps should tread,
     She, with judgment’s steady ray,
     Marks and smooths the better way.”

There is no greater folly than to select a wife for mere personal beauty alone.  Beauty will always have its attractions; and when connected with an amiable disposition and useful qualifications, its influence, cannot be objected to.  But when unaccompanied with these characteristics, its power is to be resisted, and the heart steeled against all its fascinations.  The young man who permits himself to fall so desperately in love with a lady, on account of mere personal beauty, as to marry her, despite the counsel of his friends, and when he himself sees, or might see, a sad want of other and more valuable qualifications, commits an error, the wretched effects of which will be experienced through life.  When this outward beauty loses its charm and passes away, as it will in a brief space of time, what has he left?  A cross-grained, ill-natured, fault-finding, petulant, selfish wife, who will prove a “thorn in his side,” during all his days, rather than a loving and valuable companion.

Good looks are always attractive.  But there is something still more desirable in a wife, viz., a sweet disposition and an even temper, a gentle, affectionate heart, and a well-cultivated and enlightened mind.  Let young men, by all means, seek for such qualifications in those whom they would choose for their companions.  In these characteristics there is a beauty and loveliness which will not fade away with the consummation of marriage; but they will grow brighter and more attractive from year to year, during all life.

Moreover, I would caution young men against allowing their hearts to be taken captive under circumstances where they are especially exposed to deception.  A young woman may exhibit a fine appearance in a ball-room—­may be very attractive at a party, and cut a fashionable and dashing figure in the public streets, and still make a poor, good-for-nothing wife.  These are the last places in which choice should be made of a companion, to render aid and comfort amid the struggles