tion, he may invest her character and disposition with various charming traits and beauties, which she may not in reality possess; while he, on the other side of the question, may present neither voice nor any higher possession capable of attracting her attention or awakening her affections. But whenever two persons are in the same relation to each other, they are then almost absolutely certain to experience reciprocal interests and attractions. In many instances, genuine affections would grow up between persons, and such would become steadfast friends, were circumstances favorable to a true exhibition of the inner life and character. The Law of True Mating. CLXIX.-QUESTION: "What is the true law of marriage, with regard to the happiness of the pair, and also for the good of the offspring? Should likes marry likes, or should opposites marry opposites? Should a highly developed and purely moral person marry an opposite nature, in order that the children may have a correct and well-balanced organism? Which would prove the best in results, for two highly combative organisms to come together in wedlock, or one combative and one meek and gentle?" ANSWER: The law of true wedlock is written in matter and in man. It is sublime in its process, and divine in its revelations of truth. The male and female principles, or positives and negatives, exist and govern everywhere. The nuptial law, of which these opposites are expressions, most explicitly declares that, to the ends of happiness and harmonious offspring, opposite temperaments should marry, but only when there is a similarity of capacity and development. That is to say: The social, moral, intellectual endowments, attainments, and tastes of the parties, should bear some considerable likeness to each other, and yet the temperaments (except the centrals,) may and should be almost exactly opposite. So, therefore, while rapid and torpid, hot and cold, acid and alkaline temperaments, will favorably affect each other in marriage and result in true parentage, the effect would be exactly otherwise if the unlikeness extended into social and intellectual capacities and dispositions. It will not answer to marry a foolish man to an intelligent woman, nor a combative to a gentle nature, nor a beast to an angel, for misery and diseased offspring would ensue. Servitude of White Women. CLXX.-QUESTION: "Please do not consider my intrusion unpardonable. * * * My eldest brother, for many years a member of the Rev. Dr. -'s congregation, contests all my legal and moral rights upon Bible grounds. Now, sir, I may be a very wicked creature to argue myRights' against such authority, but I cannot be a Christian, if such submission and resignation are demanded as incidental virtues in a woman. * * * Will you state the Bible texts wherein the personal and intellectual rights of woman are made subservient to those of her brother man?" ANSWER: The Christian world has a very deep truth yet to learn. It must learn that God's authority lies in the tranquil realms of eternal principles, written, unmistakeably, in the constitution of mankind. It must learn that each is an eternal fact, with identical rights and parallel privileges, which no other fact or personality has a right to curtail or embarrass. The following are the principal biblical texts which, with unequivocal religious seriousness, teach wholesale error and injustice: 1 CORINTHIANS, xiv. 34. Let your women keep silence in the Churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak: but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. 35. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the Church. EPHESIANS, V.-22. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church: and he is the Savior of the body. 24. Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. COLOSSIANS, III.-18. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 1 TIMOTHY, V.-14. I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. 15. For some are already turned aside after Satan. 1 PETER, III.—1. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. A Child's Question on Marriage. CLXXI.—QUESTION: "Will it please you to tell me if you think the time will ever come, when it will no longer be considered improper or immodest for woman to ask the man whom she loves to marry her, any more than it is now for man to ask the woman he loves to marry him? 66 Thoughts upon this subject forcibly presented themselves to my mind, when, a few days ago, (after having read a book,) my little daughter came to me with the inquiry: What does a woman do when she wishes to marry any one?' Of course I could not tell the innocent child that woman must not breathe a word on the subject, but that many women set all sorts of traps to catch men, and invent all sorts of artifices to induce men to 'pop the question!' "All the answer that I could consistently give her was, that she must diligently cultivate such virtues as should make her beloved by all who come to be acquainted with her, and especially try to improve her heart and intellect in those qualities which she perceived in that man whom she loved, respected, and admired the most. "But society has no right to condemn in woman what she approves and sanctions in man, and I shall be very glad to peruse a few suggestive thoughts from your pen upon this important subject." ANSWER: The above startling question was propounded by a darling little innocent daughter, only nine years of age, to her faithful and conscientious mother, whose answer is given in the above paragraph. Be very candid, honored reader, and inform us whether the popular and intelligent response of the regardful mother is final and satisfactory. Does it meet the child's deep-flowing interrogatory, which tends like the tide of eternal justice toward the ocean of equality, fraternity, and unity? We are free to confess, before the full-spread prejudices of superstitious millions, that the sweet-minded mother's reply does not fill our soul with perfect satisfaction. And yet, when morally interpreted, her maternal counsel is tenderly prudential and tremulously applicable to the child's future welfare, as society is now constituted. But the mother herself is dissatisfied. She writes, therefore, and petitions for "more light." What! Did you not give your daughter to understand that your answer was final? Does she not this very moment believe that herma" has imparted all the possible intelligence upon such a question? When the weeks, and months, and years shall have planted the seeds of experience within her constitution, will there not grow up in their midst this deep-rooted weed of superstition? Will she not retain the memory of very early years that her affectionate and wise mother gave her "the whole truth " upon the relative position of the sexes? And will she not, in consequence thereof, become a bigot or a slave in the matter of public Opinion. In short, have you not perjured your noble soul just as millions of blessed parents have done, and are doing? We urge you to review the whole ground on which, spiritually speaking, you stood before the questioning mind of your honest-hearted daughter. You realized the hollow-heartedness of Custom with regard to the wife-hunting rights of men. You involuntarily crimsoned at the thought that your darling daughter, just like the millions of daughters in human homes everywhere, is destined to fix herself artificially and superficially, in order to attract the handsomest and best young man in her neighborhood. She may conceive an attachment for some worthy gentleman, himself companionless and honorably in quest of a true mate, but society imperatively denies the right of your daughter to signify her sacred interest. She must blush and pretend to cherish different feelings; or, in silence and society, she is constrained to conceal every honest emotion. Should she take an hundredth part of the liberties with the chosen one that society accords to him, the chances are that both men and women, young and old, pious and impious, editors and readers, would howl, and insinuate, and heartlessly misrepresent, until affrighted, or intrenched in her pride, she would either precipitously retreat, or advance still further in the forbidden way. Then, oh then, "think of her tenderly." -- We ask you, intelligent mother, why you did not inform your daughter that, for the present, society is bound by customs which cannot be overpassed without incurring this, that, and the other misfortune-especially so with respect to the rights of courtship and liberties in the marriage relation but it was your sincere conviction that, when mankind were more civilized and refined, more noble and pure, and less given to misconstrue the best impulses of the soul, then-but not a day before it will no longer be considered improper or immodest for a woman to ask the man whom she loves to marry her." That this era will dawn we ardently believe, and we shall labor to hasten it. An Uncongenial Marriage. CLXXII.-QUESTION: "Can you give an illustration of what you term an uncongenial marriage'?" 6 ANSWER: In a certain human forest, away from the common herd, lived one Mr. W. Boar. Mr. B. is a gross, grunting, selfish individual; but he is exceedingly wealthy, |