SENSIBLE HINTS IN CHOOSING A PARTNER.
1. There are many fatal errors and many love-making failures in
courtship. Natural laws govern all nature and reduce all they govern
to eternal right; therefore love naturally, not artificially. Don't
love a somebody or a nobody simply because they have money.
2. COURT SCIENTIFICALLY.—If you court at all, court scientifically. Bungle whatever else you will, but do no bungle courtship. A failure in this may mean more than a loss of wealth or public honors; it may mean ruin, or a life often worse than death. The world is full of wretched and mismated people.
BEGIN RIGHT and all will be right; begin wrong and all will end wrong. When you court, make a business of it and study your interest the same as you would study any other business proposition.
3. DIVORCES.—There is not a divorce on our court records that is not
the result of some fundamental error in courtship. The purity or the
power of love may be corrupted the same as any other faculty, and when
a man makes up his mind to marry and shuts his eyes and grabs in the
dark for a companion, he dishonors the woman he captures and commits a
crime against God and society. In this enlightened age there should
be comparatively few mistakes made in the selection of a suitable
partner. Sufficient time should be taken to study each other's
character and disposition. Association will soon reveal adaptability.
4. FALSE LOVE.—Many a poor, blind and infatuated novice thinks he is
desperately in love, when there is not the least genuine affection in
his nature. It is all a momentary passion a sort of puppy love; his
vows and pledges are soon violated, and in wedlock he will become
indifferent and cold to his wife and children, and he will go through
life without ambition, encouragement or success. He will be a failure. True love speaks for itself, and the casual observer can read its proclamations. True love does not speak in a whisper, it always makes itself heard. The follies of flirting develops into many unhappy marriages, and blight many a life. Man happily married has superior advantages both social and financially.
5. FLIRTING JUST FOR FUN.—Who is the flirt, what is his reputation, motive, or character? Every young man and woman must have a reputation; if it is not good it is bad, there is no middle ground. Young people who are running in the streets after dark, boisterous and noisy in their conversation, gossiping and giggling, flirting with first one and then another, will soon settle their matrimonial prospects among good society. Modesty is a priceless jewel. No sensible young man with a future will marry a flirt.
6. THE ARCH-DECEIVER.—They who win the affection simply for their own
amusement are committing a great sin for which there is no adequate
punishment. How can you shipwreck the innocent life of that confiding
maiden, how can you forget her happy looks as she drank in your
expressions of love, how can you forget her melting eyes and glowing
cheeks, her tender tone reciprocating your pretended love? Remember
that God is infinitely just, and "the soul that sinneth shall surely
die." You may dash into business, seek pleasure in the club room, and
visit gambling hells, but "Thou art the man" will ever stare you in
the face. Her pale, sad cheeks, her hollow eyes will never cease to
haunt you. Men should promote happiness, and not cause misery. Let the
savage Indians torture captives to death by the slow flaming fagot, but let civilized man respect the tenderness and love of confiding women. Torturing the opposite sex is double-distilled barbarity. Young men agonizing young ladies, is the cold-blooded cruelty of devils, not men.
7. THE RULE TO FOLLOW.—Do not continually pay your attentions to the
same lady if you have no desire to win her affections. Occasionally
escorting her to church, concert, picnic, party, etc., is perfectly
proper; but to give her your special attention, and extend invitations
to her for all places of amusements where you care to attend, is an
implied promise that you prefer her company above all others, and she
has a right to believe that your attentions are serious.