Matrimony

“ There's no talking to a young woman now about marriage, but she is all in a blaze about hearts, and darts, and—and—But hark ye, child, I'll suffer no daughter of mine to play the fool with her heart, indeed! She shall marry for the purpose for which matrimony was ordained amongst people of birth—that is, for the aggrandisement of her family, the extending of their political influence—for becoming, in short, the depository of their mutual interest. ”

“ With a great deal of shyness and simpering and half-suppressed grinning, and real or affected modesty on the part of the women, and equal mirth and awkward self-consciousness on that of the aspirant bridegrooms, the candidates for matrimony—or at least such of them as were present, one couple and a 'boy' being away—were got together and ranged in a row before us, hoes in hand, where they stood, to their own and the boisterous delight of their colaborers. ”

“ MATRIMONY.—Since the reformation, especially during the last century, and in our own land, matrimony has been so much esteemed, notably by women, that it has come to be regarded as in some sort discreditable for them to remain single. ”

“ But marriage is not, after all, the ultimatum of earthly bliss, Miss Brandt! Many married couples would tell you it is just the reverse. And with a fortune at your command, you have many pleasures and interests quite apart from that very over-rated institution of matrimony. ”

“ You are my husband—tied to me by a bond that none but God can sever, since it was He who bound us. You abominable materialists think that the ordinance of matrimony is a thing to be played fast and loose with. ”

“ Perhaps you may think such a frame of mind naturally leads a man to the consideration of matrimony. No, my dear future companion! My weariness has made me too indolent to form new ties, too indolent to found a family, too indolent to take upon myself the responsibility of wife and children. In short, marriage is to me inconceivable. ”

“ She would take to matrimony, I should say, like a duck to water, with unruffled plumage, but as a wife she would never be commonplace, or anything but engaging, and, as the saying is, she could make almost any man happy. ”

“ The girls of our country are trained and educated in the idea that matrimony is the end and aim of their existence; to marry well, that is, to marry wealth if possible, but at all events to marry. The air-castles of our young misses are the objects of their thoughts and dreams, the topics of their daily conversation. ”

“ In the first place it seems eminently desirable to emphasize more than we have emphasized in the past the ideal of matrimony for every woman up to a certain age, and to bring home to parents that marriage is what they must seek for their daughters and what they must train them for. ”

“ Matrimony is a solemn Work, 'tis proposed as a sacred Institution, and the conjugal State is, upon all Occasions, look'd upon, by those that confider and understand it, as a kind of Civil Establishment in life; to engage in it Rashly, and without Consideration, is perfectly inconsistent with the Nature of the Thing, and with all that is proposed in it, or expected from it, at least by wife and sober People. ”

“ Matrimony is to be the test of how we have built our castle. The success of the matrimonial venture—for every marriage is an experiment—depends absolutely upon the result of the first year. We would, therefore, seriously, and earnestly, request the young wife to think deeply upon this problem and not to ignore the fact that the success of the venture is absolutely dependent upon her efforts to a very large degree. ”

“ Look at them; do they look like fit subjects for such a holy ordinance? God never intended those, whom he created in his own image, should live in matrimony like this man and woman. I cannot marry them. ”

“ I was ever of opinion, that the honest man who married and brought up a large family, did more service than he who continued single and only talked of a population. From this motive, I had scarcely taken orders a year, before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my wife, as she did her wedding-gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but for such qualities as would wear well. ”

“ Yes! my mind is quite made up about matrimony; it’s a one-sided partnership.
“Husband” gets up in the morning, and pays his devoirs to the looking-glass; curls his fine head of hair; puts on an immaculate shirt bosom; ties an excruciating cravat; sprinkles his handkerchief with cologne; stows away a French roll, an egg, and a cup of coffee; gets into the omnibus, looks at the pretty girls, and makes love between the pauses of business during the forenoon generally. Wife must “hermetically seal” the windows and exclude all the fresh air, (because the baby had “the snuffles” in the night;) ”

“ One might imagine the existence of some subtle common bond77 that would unite the persons who had gone in for so definite a profession—at least for a woman—as matrimony. Yet it does not seem obvious even to the most acute perception. If it were more obvious the question would not so often insolubly put itself how such and such persons ever come to marry at all. ”

“ Whereas, I presume, that men and their wives neither love nor hate each other the more, upon account of the form of matrimony which has been said over them. The cohabitation, indeed, which is the consequence of matrimony, makes them either love or hate more, accordingly as they respectively deserve it ”

“ Since our arrival, as we have informed them of the word and will of{141} God, importing, that in the beginning the All-wise Creator made one man and one woman, to live in matrimony as husband and wife, there has been some resentment in the wives, when their husbands have had a mind to take any other besides them ”

“ They observe the rules of matrimony, only that every man has two or three wives, who never marry again if their husbands happen to die, wearing all their lives after a kind of mourning dress, and smearing their faces with charcoal dust and grease, as thick as the back of a knife, by which they are known to be widows. ”

“ Banishing from her mind and heart every earthly attachment, renouncing the very idea of matrimony, she, standing resolutely by the side of a Brother whom she was to aid and serve so well, arose to dedicate her life to the service of her Father’s glorious Cause. ”

“ If he dips the left hand by chance into clean water, his future wife will come to the bar of matrimony a maid; if into the empty dish, he will have no marriage at all; if into the foul, he will marry a widow. ”

“ Husbands and wives talk of the cares of matrimony, and bachelors and spinsters bear them. ”

“ She was not perhaps different from other loving women, who, believing in this unattainable goal of matrimony, have sought it in the various episodes of fortune or reverses, in the bearing of children, or the loss of friends. ”

“ Matrimony, therefore, having removed all such motives, he grew weary of this condescension, and began to treat the opinions of his wife with that haughtiness and insolence, which none but those who deserve some contempt themselves can bestow, and those only who deserve no contempt can bear. ”

“ Let me now say in conclusion that this commandment demands not only that every one live chastely in thought, word, and deed in his condition, that is, especially in the estate of matrimony, but also that every one love and esteem the spouse given him by God. For where conjugal chastity is to be maintained, man and wife must by all means live together in love and harmony, that one may cherish the other from the heart and with entire fidelity. ”

“ Do not, as some girls do, look upon society as simply the means to the securing of a husband, for, although I told you in one of my former letters the goal of a sensible girl is matrimony, still she must come naturally to this state through having, by her own charm and complete equipment, mental and physical, attracted a suitable mate; she must not have in front of her marriage as a necessity, and so be ready to grab any creature who may show himself willing with her to enter the bond. ”

“ It were to be wished, that all People that marry were to be ask'd before-hand if they really understood what Matrimony meant, and what the true intent of a married Life was, as well in its Institution, as in the grand Design of Family-Felicity; the married Couple are young, their Blood warm ”

“ We should fear and love God that each may love and honor his spouse. Spouse is man or wife, persons who live in holy matrimony, as your parents do. Matrimony is instituted by God, and it is His will that husband and wife should love and honor each other, that they should faithfully live together till death parts them. ”

“ Then if there is no impediment, the minister says unto the man:
Mr.⸻ wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife—to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony ? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honor her, and keep her in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others and keep thee only unto her so long as ye both shall live? The man shalt answer "I will." ”

“ I really do think of marrying, though I am not yet absolutely determined on matrimony. I made the acquaintance of this very amiable woman in Paris, who, I believe, would have no objection in having me for a husband, and who in all respects would be a proper match for me. ”

“ A life-long tête-á-tête, which was the old conception of marriage, is quite obsolete. It has given way to the triangular theory, by which a new element, in the shape of a parasitical adorer, has been introduced into the holy state. Matrimony, as reconstituted by fashionable scholiasts, comprises husband, wife, and, to relieve the tedium of the situation, a good-looking appendage of the male sex, who is an agreeable companion of the one and the devoted slave of the other. Each contributes to the harmony of the arrangement—the husband, a background ”

“ I [46] never contradicted her father in my life. I effected all my plans without a single quarrel. There is no occasion to quarrel in matrimony. A woman's influence is and must be felt; but it ends the instant you appear to contend. ”

“ I now require and charge you both, as you will answer at the dreadful day of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment why you may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, you do now confess it, for be ye well assured, that so many as are coupled together, otherwise than God's word doth allow, and they are not joined together by the word of God, neither is their matrimony lawful. ”

“ There are couples of different sex who jointly consider their first kiss a matter of supreme importance, and, the temporary rapture over, at once begin to discuss the possibilities of parental approbation and the ways and means of matrimony. ”

“ And all the others [Pg 23] who have had the good fortune to love the man who has given them his name, and have thrown themselves into his arms, giving him their whole hearts, happy to be able to transform themselves in him and for him; who dreamt of making marriage a synonym of love, and who instead found the husband in a few months in the arms of an old love; have not all these women the right of vengeance? This is matrimony as it is daily represented in the many small theaters which we call men’s houses. ”

“ Walker, in their works on marriage, refer to the common tendency of one sex to seek the opposite temperament in the other. But, upon the subject of matrimony, even in its physiological relations, society unwittingly does very well. ”

“ The ideal wife; The duties of a husband; Money and matrimony; The culture of the child; The home and the higher education of women; Woman’s rights; and Good mothers the makers of great nations, Dr. Peters emphasizes the serious side of matrimony, gives good advice to both husband and wife, and discusses education, deplores modern extravagance, and makes many suggestions, which, if followed, will help to make daily life easier and more worth while to both the married and the unmarried. ”

“ Cf. the curious book of Madan, Thelyphthora, or a Treatise on Female Ruin (2d ed., London, 1781) , who endeavors to show that sacerdotal celibacy, the theory of impediments, and the invention of the sacrament of matrimony have lowered the ideal of marriage which is an institution divinely ordained for all men. ”

“ But to live in an eternal state of love-mush is what young people are brought up to regard as matrimony. The plain facts of matrimony are carefully hidden from them, as either being too "prosaic" or too indelicate. ”

“ When these come together, there's Matrimony in its Perfection; if they marry, they can answer the Minister, when he asks them, Will you love him? Will you love her? The Man can say, I will, because I do ”

“ In this class are the widowers who wed for the sake of their children, the spinsters whose motive is their desire for motherhood, the men and women who marry to possess a home, or for the sake of companionship. All these reasons are justifiable enough, and people who embark on matrimony with a set purpose generally take it very seriously, and determine to 63 make a success of it. Such marriages often prove extremely happy, perhaps for the very reason that so little is asked. ”

“ Procreation of the Species, and the Generation of Mankind, is the just End of Matrimony; 'tis express'd so in the Office of Matrimony, and in the sacred Text, in many Places; Now when the Woman is with Child, the End of Matrimony is answered ”