SEXUAL HYGIENE 181 



be said on this point, bnt this is sufficient for those who 

 are willing to profit by a useful hint. 



7. Persons behveen ivhom there is a great disparity 

 of age should not marry. 



The reasons for this have already been given at 

 length, and we will not repeat. In general, the hus- 

 band should be older than the wife, from two to five 

 years. The husband may often be ten or twelve years 

 the senior of the wife; but when more than that, the 

 union is not likely to be a profitable or happy one, if 

 it is not absolutely productive of suffering and unhap- 

 piness. The ancient Greeks required that the husband 

 should be twenty years older than the wife; but this 

 custom was no more reasonable than that of another 

 nation which required that only old and young should 

 marry, so that the sobriety of the old might restrain 

 the frivolity of the young. 



8. Persons who are extremely unlike in tempera- 

 ment should not marry. 



Persons who are so unlike in temperament and 

 tastes as to have no mutual enjoyments, no congeniality 

 of feeling, will be incompatible as husband and wife, 

 and the union of such persons will be anything but 

 felicitous. No definite rule can be laid down ; but those 

 seeking a companion for life would do well to bear this 

 caution in mind, at the same time remembering that 

 too great similarity of character, especially when there 

 are prominent defects, is equally undesirable. 



9. Marriage between ividely different races is un- 

 advisahle. 



While there is no moral precept directly involved in 

 marriage between widely different nations, as between 

 whites and blacks or Indians, experience shows that 

 such marriages are not only not conducive to happi- 



