If either party to the marriage contract disregards or is unable to appease the demands made upon him or her for sympathy or emotion, there is likely to be trouble; for

Sentiment, not intellect, is the cementing material in marriage, and

If a man and wife cannot effuse a mutual sentiment, gradually they will grow apart.  Indeed,

The demands of the emotions are at once more imperious and tyrannical, and more fastidious and critical, than are the demands of the mind.  Of all of which, what is the moral?  This: 

The married pair who would live in amity, not to say in affection, must so live as that each shall persuade the other is the sole personage under the roof of heaven that he or she desires.  Alas!

The unwritten motto of many a married couple is:  The Heart Knoweth its own Bitterness.

* * *

Marriage reveals the moods of a man.

What is an ideal marriage?  That perhaps in which the man is to the woman at once friend, husband, and lover.  But some people prefer these functions distinct.

That is a happy marriage in which a woman’s husband is also her confidant.  And always,

Husband and wife should move like binary stars:  revolving about a common centre; mutually attractive; and, unless closely viewed, presenting a single impression.

* * *

Matrimony is sometimes a terrible iconoclast.  Whether it throws down the images of false or of true gods, depends on the religion of the worshipper.

* * *

It would be difficult, sometimes, to determine whether constancy was an autogenous or enforced virtue.

* * *

Never play pranks with your wife, your horse, or your razor.

* * *

There is a thing which not gold nor favor nor even love can buy.  Its true name is secret; but it is content to be called Sympathy.  Accordingly,

Let no man or woman think when he or she has won wife or husband all has been won that is necessary.  For,

If sympathy cannot be gained from one quarter, it will probably be sought in another.

* * *

At the moment of the formation of a matrimonial syndicate of two, each member of this as yet unincorporated joint-stock company verily believes that each has put into the concern his whole real and personal property.  Yet it is to be feared that, although

The woman, possibly, invests her whole capital, the man—­often, no doubt, unwittingly to himself—­retains not a few unmatured bonds and debentures.  That is to say,

Love, it is to be feared, is often enough a bargain in which the woman comes off second-best.  For

A woman gives herself; man accepts the gift.

Rarely, if ever, does a man give himself.  He cannot.  His work, his play, his politics, his friends, his club—­these are matters to him highly important.

To a woman the only highly important things are:  her husband and her home.