for such a trifle as that the right man should marry the right woman.
Nature possibly never considered a time-contract, and she is a careless
jade, anyway. She moves blindly along with never a thought for the
individual.

Audubon the naturalist records that one-third of all birds hatched tumble
out of the nest before they can fly, and once on the ground the parent
birds are unable either to warm, feed or protect them.

Read the lives of the Great Men who have lived during the past three
thousand years, and listen closely, and you will hear the wild wail of
neglected and unappreciated wives. A woman can forgive a beating, but to
be forgotten--never. She hates, by instinct, an austere and self-contained
character. Dignity and pride repel her; preoccupation keeps her aloof;
concentration on an idea is unforgivable.

The wife of Tolstoy seeking to have her husband adjudged insane is not a
rare instance in the lives of thinkers. To think thoughts that are
different from the thoughts one's neighbors think is surely good reason
why the man should be looked after. Recently we have had evidence that the
wife of Victor Hugo regarded the author of "Les Miserables" with
suspicion, and at one time actually made preparations to let him enjoy
his exile alone--she would go back to Paris and enjoy life as every one
should. At Guernsey there was no society!

When Isaac Newton called upon his ladylove and in a fit of abstraction,
looking about for a utensil to push the tobacco down in his pipe, chanced
upon the lady's little finger, the law of gravitation was abrogated at
once, and Newton and his pipe were sent, like nebulæ whirling into space.