176 ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION OF ADAPTATION. 



Her veneration re-awakens his, which makes him happy 

 in her and therefore love her ; while his, by re-awakening 

 hers, continually renders her happy in him and therefore 

 increases her love for him ; whereas, if he is an atheist this 

 difference abraids and pains her veneration, makes her 

 unhappy in him, and compels her to dislike him, while his, 

 regarding her piety as superstition, detracts from his hap- 

 piness in and therefore love for her, and this religious dis- 

 cord impairs their union in other respects, as for instance, 

 in the education of their children it becomes a constant cause 

 of anxiety on the one hand and irritation on the other. 



If one, having large conscientiousness, scrupulously 

 loves the right and hates the wrong, while the other, having 

 small conscientiousness, cares little for either, how can they 

 live as happily and lovingly together as if both were scrupu- 

 lous or unscrupulous? 



Can he whose large order is delighted by method and 

 pained by disorder, be as happy in or loving with her whose 

 small order is perpetually leaving everything in complete 

 confusion, as if both liked order or both cared little for it? 

 Is not similarity, even in the wrong, more promotive of 

 conjugal concord, than if one is right and the other wrong, 

 or either condemns what the other likes. Do you love the 

 more you differ, or the less so ? Are you unhappy because 

 alike, or unlike? Do not opposite views always, and neces- 

 sarily, engender alienations? 



Doubly is this true of the social affections. As well 

 wed summer to winter, or ice to fire, as those who are pas- 

 sionate to those who are passionless ; or those who love to 

 caress and be caressed, to those who are distant and 

 reserved, or one gushing and glowing to one who is stoical. 

 Unite, they never can. 



An apparently contradictory theory to that herein set 

 forth may be entertained, and many illustrations of happy 

 unions between strongly contrasting dispositions may be 

 cited. We will therefore proceed to consider. 



