A man's wife, if properly
chosen, will aid in all this. The most brilliant and original thinker,
and the deepest philosopher we have--he who has written books which
educate the statesmen and the leaders of the world--has told us in his
last preface that he, having lost his wife, has lost his chief
inspiration. Looking back at his works, he traces all that is noble, all
that is advanced in thought and grand in idea, and all that is true in
expression, not to a poet or a teacher, but to his own wife; in losing
her he says he has lost much, but the world has lost more. So, also, two
men, very opposite in feelings, in genius, and in character, and as
opposite in their pursuits, declared at a late period in their
lives--lives spent in industry and hard work, and in expression of what
the world deemed their own particular genius--"that they owed all to
their wives." These men were Sir Walter Scott and Daniel O'Connell. "The
very gods rejoice," says Menu the sage, "when the wife is honored. When
the wife is injured, the whole family decays; when the contrary is the
case, it flourishes." This may be taken as an eternal truth--as one of
those truths not to be put by, not to be argued down by casual
exceptions. It is just as true of nations as it is of men; of the whole
people as it is of individual families. So true it is, that it may be
regarded as a piece of very sound advice when we counsel all men,
married or single, to choose only such men for their friends as are
happy in their wedded lives.
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