Chapter 25 - Page 2

different
notions on the subject of marrying the girls."

Mrs. Wilson replied, with a good-humored smile, "you have made Anne so
good a husband, Ned, that she forgets there are any bad ones in the world;
_my_ greatest anxiety is, that the husband of my niece may be a Christian;
indeed, I know not how I can reconcile it to my conscience, as a Christian
myself, to omit this important qualification,"

"I am sure, Charlotte, both Denbigh and Egerton appear to have a great
respect for religion; they are punctual at church, and very attentive to
the service:" Mrs, Wilson smiled as he proceeded, "but religion may come
after marriage, you know."

"Yes, brother, and I know it may not come at all; no really pious woman
can be happy, without her husband is in what she deems the road to future
happiness himself; and it is idle--it is worse--it is almost impious to
marry with a view to reform a husband: indeed, she greatly endangers her
own safety thereby; for few of us, I believe, but find the temptation to
err as much as we can contend with, without calling in the aid of example
against us, in an object we love; indeed it appears to me, the life of
such a woman must be a struggle between conflicting duties."

"Why," said the baronet, "if your plan were generally adopted, I am afraid
it would give a deadly blow to matrimony."

"I have nothing to do with generals, brother, I am acting for individual
happiness, and discharging individual duties: at the same time I cannot
agree with you in its effects on the community. I think no man who
dispassionately examines the subject, will be other than a Christian; and
rather than remain bachelors, they would take even that trouble; if the
strife in our sex were less for a husband, wives would increase in value."

"But how is it, Charlotte," said the baronet, pleasantly, "your sex do not
use your power and reform the age?"

"The work of reformation, Sir Edward," replied his sister, gravely, "is an
arduous one indeed, and I despair of seeing it general, in my day; but
much, very much, might be done towards it, if those who have the guidance
of youth would take that trouble with their pupils that good faith
requires of them, to discharge the minor duties of life."

"Women ought to marry," observed the baronet, musing.

"Marriage is certainly the natural and most desirable state for a woman,"
but how few are there who, having entered it, know how to discharge its
duties; more particularly those of a mother! On the subject of marrying
our daughters, for instance, instead of qualifying them to make a proper
choice, they are