Dr. Courtney's guide to happy marriage

Multum in Parvo Library.
Entered at Post Office as Second-Class matter.
Vol. I.
June, 1894. Published Monthly.
No. 6.
Smallest Magazine in the World. Subscription price, 50 cts. per year. Single copies, 5 cents each.
PUBLISHED BY A. B. COURTNEY, 671 Tremont Street, Boston.
MARRIAGE GUIDE.
We will suppose you have read and profited by the excellent suggestions contained in an article published in a previous issue of this library, under the head of “How to Woo, Win and Wed.” You have succeeded in winning the object of your affections, and have set sail upon the sea of matrimony. It is often called a troublous sea. Such indeed it proves in truth to be for those who embark upon it not fully prepared for the voyage. Do you really, married or unmarried, know the full meaning of the word marriage. It is something far more serious than a mere civil contract or religious ceremony. These are only the marks of outward show. There is a good deal behind these—a good deal that you ought to know, and of which, perchance, you are ignorant. The aim of this article is to give some practical advice to those who have already entered into the bonds of matrimony, and it will not, it is hoped, come amiss to those about to marry, but who have not yet taken the step that leads to misery or bliss. “Marriage,” says Selden, “is a desperate thing; the frogs in Æsop were extremely wise; they had a great mind to some water, but they would not leap into the well, because they could not get out again.” Would that most of us possessed the wisdom of the fabled frogs.
Marriage ought to be consummated as the result of mutual love and esteem, and not for the purpose of simply gratifying the desires of our lower nature. This last consideration is, it must be acknowledged, a controlling one with a great many people, and marriages contracted in this manner are not generally, and cannot hope to be, happy ones. The sacredness of the marriage relation ought never to be violated. We must not forget that we are rational beings with a will to withstand the weaknesses of our animal natures.