Look carefully at the disposition.--See that your intended Spouse is
kind-hearted, generous, and willing to respect the opinions of others,
though not in sympathy with them. Don't marry a selfish tyrant who
thinks only of himself.

6. BE CAREFUL.--Don't marry an intemperate man with a view of
reforming him. Thousands have tried it and failed. Misery, sorrow
and a very hell on earth have been the consequences of too many such
generous undertakings.

7. THE TRUE AND ONLY TEST which any man should look for in woman is
modesty in demeanor before marriage, absence both of assumed ignorance
and disagreeable familiarity, and a pure and religious frame of mind.
Where these are present, he need not doubt that he has a faithful and
a chaste wife.

8. MARRYING FIRST COUSINS is dangerous to offspring. The observation
is universal, the children of married first cousins are too often
idiots, insane, clump-footed, crippled, blind, or variously diseased.
First cousins are always sure to impart all the hereditary disease
in both families to their children. If both are healthy there is less
danger.

9. DO NOT CHOOSE ONE TOO GOOD, or too far above you, lest the inferior
dissatisfying the superior, breed those discords which are worse than
the trials of a single life. Don't be too particular; for you might go
farther and fare worse. As far as you yourself are faulty, you should
put up with faults. Don't cheat a consort by getting one much better
than you can give. We are not in heaven yet, and must put up with
their imperfections, and instead of grumbling at them, be glad they