MARRIAGE,—CHOICE IN.
Boswell: "Pray, sir, do you not suppose that there are fifty women in the world, with any one of whom a man may be as happy, as with any one woman in particular?" Johnson: "Ay, sir, fifty thousand." Boswell: "Then, sir, you are not of opinion with some who imagine that certain men and certain women are made for each other, and that they cannot be happy if they miss their counterparts." Johnson: "To be sure not, sir. I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due consideration of the characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice in the matter."
Boswell's Johnson, p. 283.
—Samuel Johnson.
1289
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.
—Cowper.
1290
When a man and woman are married their romance ceases and their history commences.