men and women before they are of age. It is a crying evil, worthy of the severest censure. A case was recently tried in Rutland, Vermont, in which a Miss Munson recovered fourteen hundred and twenty-five dollars of a Mr. Hastings for a breach of marriage contract. The curiosity of the thing is this: The Vermont judge charged the jury that no explicit promise was necessary to bind the parties to a marriage contract, but that long continued attentions or intimacy with a female was as good evidence of intended matrimony as a special contract. The principle of the case undoubtedly is, that if Hastings did not promise, he ought to have done so the law holds him responsible for the non-performance of his duty. A most excellent decision. We think if there were more such cases there would be less flirting. One of the meanest things a young man can do (and it is not at all of uncommon occurrence) is to monopolize the time and attention of a young girl for a year, or more, without any definite object, and to the exclusion of other gentlemen, who, supposing him to have matrimonial intentions, absent themselves from her society. This selfish " This selfish "dog-in-the-manger" way of proceeding should be discountenanced and forbidden by all parents and guardians. It prevents the reception of eligible offers of marriage, and fastens upon the young lady, when the acquaintance is finally dissolved, the unenviable and unmerited appellation of "flirt." Let all your dealings with women, young man, be frank, honest and noble. That many whose education and position in life would warrant our looking for better things, are culpably criminal on these points, is no excuse for your shortcomings. That woman is often injured, or wronged, through her holiest feelings, adds but a blacker dye to your meanness. One rule is always safe: Treat every woman you meet as you would wish another man to treat your innocent, confiding sister. Bachelors. MARRIAGE has a great refining and moralizing tendency. Nearly all the debauchery and crime is committed by unmarried men, or by those who have wives equal to none, at least to them. When a man marries early, and uses prudence in choosing a suitable companion, he is likely to lead a virtuous, happy life. But in an unmarried state, all alluring vices have a tendency to draw him away. We notice in the State penitentiary reports that nearly all the criminals are bachelors. The more married men you have, the fewer crimes there will be. Marriage renders a man more virtuous and more wise. An unmarried man is but half of a perfect being, and it requires the other half to make things right; and it cannot be expected that in this imperfect state he can keep straight in the path of rectitude any more than a boat with one oar can keep a straight course. In nine cases out of ten, where married men become drunkards, or where they commit crimes against the peace of the community, the foundation of these acts was laid while in a single state, or where the wife is, as is sometimes the case, an unsuitable match. Marriage changes the current of a man's feelings and gives him a center for his thoughts, his affections and his acts. If it were intended for man to be single, there would be no harm in remaining so; and, on the other hand, it would become a crime if any persons would unite and live as wedded. But, since this is not the Divine law, it is a sin and crime if men do not marry, and live as designed. are Marriage is a school and exercise of virtue; and though marriage hath cares, yet single life hath desires, which are more troublesome and more dangerous, and often end in sin; while the cares but exercises of piety; and, therefore, if the single life hath more privacy of devotion, yet marriage hath more variety of it, and is an exercise of more graces. Marriage is the proper scene of piety and patience, of the duty of parents and the charity of relations; here kindness is spread abroad, and love is united and made firm as a center. Marriage is the nursery of heaven. The virgin sends prayers to God; but she carries but one soul to him; but the state of her marriage fills up the numbers of the elect, and hath in it the labor of love, and the delicacies of friendship, the blessings of society, and the union of hearts and hands. It hath in it more safety than the single life; it hath more care, it is more merry and more sad; is fuller of sorrows and fuller of joys; it lies under more burdens, but is supported by all the strength of love and charity which makes those burdens delightful. Marriage is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities, and churches, and heaven itself, and is that state of good things to which God hath designed the present constitution of the world. The We advise every young man to get married. chances are better by fifty per cent., all through life, in every respect. There is no tear shed for the old bachelor; there is no ready hand and kind heart to cheer him in his loneliness and bereavement; there is none in whose eyes he can see himself reflected, and from whose lips he can receive the unfailing assurances of care and love. He may be courted for his money; he may eat and drink and revel; and he may sicken and die in a hotel or a garret, with plenty of attend ants about him, like so many cormorants waiting for their prey; but he will never know the comforts of the domestic fireside. The guardians of the Holborn Union lately advertised for candidates to fill the situation of engineer at the work-house, a single man, a wife not being allowed to reside on the premises. Twenty-one candidates presented themselves, but it was found that as to testimonials, character, workmanship, and appearance, the best men were all married men. The guardians had therefore to elect a married man. A man who avoids matrimony on account of the cares of wedded life, cuts himself off from a great blessing for fear of a trifling annoyance. He rivals the wise-acre who secured himself against corns by having his legs amputated. My bachelor brother, there cannot, by any possibility, be a home where there is no wife. To talk of a home without love, we might as well expect to find an American fireside in one of the pyramids of Egypt. There is a world of wisdom in the following: "Every schoolboy knows that a kite would not fly unless it had a string tying it down. It is just so in life. The man who is tied down by half-a-dozen blooming responsibilities and their mother, will make a higher and stronger flight than the bachelor who, having nothing to keep him steady, is always floundering in the mud. If you want to ascend in the world, tie yourself to somebody." Influence of Matrimony. MARRIAGE is an occasion on which none refuse to sympathize. Would that all were equally able and willing to understand! Would that all could know how, from the first flow of the affections till they are shed abroad in all their plenitude, the purposes of their creation become fulfilled. They were to life like a sleeping ocean to a bright but barren and silent shore. When the breeze from afar awakened it, new lights began to gleam, and echoes to be heard; rich and unthought-of treasures were cast up from the depths; the barriers of individuality were broken down; and |