Alas,
the world is an argus-eyed, many-headed, sleepless, heartless monster.
The independent man, if he would retain his independence, must retire
with his wife to his own home, and it would be a pity if in thinking
of his defeat he was to ask himself, Was my pretty doll worth this
terrible struggle after all? wouldn't it? Well, I pity that man, for
at most he has only done a foolish thing, and he has not passed
through life without being a public benefactor. He has held a reversed
lamp. While he has walked in the dark himself, he has shed light on
the path of others.
Ah, Sophy, when you read this, and I know you will, you'll say, What a
dreadful picture you have drawn! it ain't like you--you are too
good-natured, I can't believe you ever wrote so spiteful an article as
this, and, woman like, make more complimentary remarks than I deserve.
Well, it ain't like me, that's a fact, but it is like the world for
all that. Well, then you will puzzle your little head whether after
all there is any happiness in married life, won't you?
Well, I will answer that question. I believe there may be and are
many, very many happy marriages; but then people must be as near as
possible in the same station of life, their tempers compatible, their
religious views the same, their notions of the world similar, and
their union based on mutual affection, entire mutual confidence, and
what is of the utmost consequence, the greatest possible mutual
respect.
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