I06 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



occupy high social positions, who have culture 

 and refinement, and yet who are supremely dis- 

 tasteful to us. If absent, they are never missed ; 

 if present, they are an annoyance. All that can 

 be said is that they and we are not congenial. 

 There is such a thing as natural repulsion, which 

 is possibly a physical quality. There is absolutely 

 no explanation of this phenomenon ; but it exists. 

 If two persons with such antipathies are brought 

 together, and tied together by a million ceremo- 

 nies, there will never be a home. It cannot be 

 truly said that God hath joined them together, 

 even though Church and State have combined 

 to sanction the union. A sense of honour or 

 religious principle or repugnance to evil may 

 restrain the parties from other alliances ; but 

 there will never be anything but the form, the 

 outer shell of true wedlock. Hence the question, 

 who may marry, deserves far more careful treat- 

 ment than it has usually received. If any sub- 

 ject has claims on the thought of the ablest, 

 most scientific, and most spiritual intellects, it 

 is this subject of marriage, and who should be 

 allowed to assume its solemn obligations. On 

 this point I have a few suggestions to make. 

 Those who are not in the truest sense compan- 

 ionable, and who, after suitable intercourse, do 



