Happiness and Marriage by Elizabeth (Jones) Towne
page 43 of 76 (56%)
page 43 of 76 (56%)
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weak points, where she is as yet undeveloped, are the Adam or interior
nature of her. If it were not for personal attractions, particularly the attractions of one man and one woman, the _latent_ parts of both men and women would remain forever undeveloped and their strong points would continue to grow stronger. In time (supposing the race did not die out), there would be two classes of people utterly different and at variance with each other--two opposites with no understanding or sympathy for each other. Attraction brings together opposites; the strong, steady man falls in love with a frivolous butterfly; a handsome woman attracts a homely man and _vice versa;_ a strong, capable woman marries a sickly, incompetent man--and supports him; a sentimental woman is attracted to a matter-of-fact man who develops her common sense by pruning her sentimentalities; an artistic temperament is drawn to a phlegmatic; a sanguine to a bilious; a mental to a vital; an active man marries a lazy wife, or _vice versa_; a bright man marries a stupid girl; and so on and on. Man and wife are a rounded whole in which the man manifests what is latent in the woman, and the woman supplies that which in the man is as yet undeveloped. Just as Eve coaxes, or scolds, Adam into habits of neatness; as Adam coaxes, scolds or drives Eve into having his meals on time, thus developing her self-command and _promptness_; so they act and re-act upon each other to develop a thousand latencies of which they, and the onlookers, are more or less unconscious. The foolish Adams and Eves fret and strain against these processes of development, and bewail their "mistake" in marrying; not seeing that the |
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