SEXUAL HYGIENE 155 



A Domestic Purgatory.— We have scarcely re- 

 ferred to the domestic misery which may result from 

 these disgraceful unions. If a young girl is brought 

 home by a widower to preside over his grown-up 

 daughters, each of whom is old enough to be her 

 mother, all the elements are provided for such a do- 

 mestic hell as could only be equaled by circumstances 

 precisely similar. If children are born, neither father 

 nor mother is fit to act the part of a parent to them. 

 The father, by reason of his age, is fitful, uncertain, 

 and childish; to-day too lenient, to-morrow too exact- 

 ing. The mother is pettish, childish, indulgent, impa- 

 tient, and as unskilled in government as unfit for 

 motherhood. In the midst of all this misrule, the child 

 grows up undisciplined, uncultivated, unsubdued,— a 

 misery to his parents, a disgrace to his friends, a dis- 

 honor to himself. 



^'Wliat shall I do with him? and what will he do 

 with me ? ' ' was the question asked by a girl of eighteen 

 whose parents were urging her to marry an old man; 

 and every young woman would do well to propound 

 the same question under similar circumstances. 



Were we disposed to define more specifically the 

 conditions necessary to secure the most harmoniou? 

 matrimonial unions, it would be useless to do so; for 

 unions of this sort never have been, and never will be-— 

 with rare exceptions— formed in accordance with a 

 prescribed method, independent of any emotional bias. 

 Nor is it probable that such a plan would result in 

 remedying, in any appreciable degree, existing evils. 

 It is a fact too patent to be ignored, that a very large 

 share of the unhappiness in the world arises from ill- 

 mated marriages; but it is also true that nearly the 

 whole of this unhappiness might be averted if the par- 



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