The wives of England, their relative duties, domestic influence, and social obligations / By the author of The women of England.

  • Ellis, Sarah Stickney, 1799-1872.
Date:
[pref. 1843]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wives of England, their relative duties, domestic influence, and social obligations / By the author of The women of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    26/394 (page 8)
    If on this point there is doubt, there must be danger; but still there are tests to be applied, which may in some measure reduce those doubts to certainty. The most important question, in a case of doubt, is, whether your heart lingers after any other object; and this may be best ascertained by asking yourself still further, whether there is any other man in the world, of whom it would give you pain to hear that he was likely to be married. If there is not, you are in all probability safe in this respect, and yet you may not love the man you are about to marry as he hopes, deserves, and believes himself to be loved. I would ask, then, are you weary of his presence, and relieved when he goes awray? or are you disposed to exercise less charity and forbearance towards his faults, than towards the faults of others? for if his failings annoy and irritate you more than those of men in general, depend upon it, you do not love him as you ought. If, too, you feel ashamed of him before marriage, there is little probability that you will afterwards evince towards him that respect and reverence which is right and seemly in a wife. In order to ascertain these points clearly, it is good for every woman before she marries, to see the man of her choice in the company of her friends, and especially to see him associated and