Attraction brings together opposites; the strong, steady man falls in
love with a frivolous butterfly; a handsome woman attracts a homely man
and _vice versa;_ a strong, capable woman marries a sickly, incompetent
man--and supports him; a sentimental woman is attracted to a
matter-of-fact man who develops her common sense by pruning her
sentimentalities; an artistic temperament is drawn to a phlegmatic; a
sanguine to a bilious; a mental to a vital; an active man marries a lazy
wife, or _vice versa_; a bright man marries a stupid girl; and so on
and on.
Man and wife are a rounded whole in which the man manifests what is
latent in the woman, and the woman supplies that which in the man is as
yet undeveloped. Just as Eve coaxes, or scolds, Adam into habits of
neatness; as Adam coaxes, scolds or drives Eve into having his meals on
time, thus developing her self-command and _promptness_; so they act and
re-act upon each other to develop a thousand latencies of which they,
and the onlookers, are more or less unconscious.
The foolish Adams and Eves fret and strain against these processes of
development, and bewail their "mistake" in marrying; not seeing that the
association is really benefiting both.
Pages:
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66