The Gazette

MATRIMONY

EXTRACT OF A LETTER ON MARRIAGE.

"It is a just remark that it is more difficult to keep money than to earn it: and whatever be the cause, few bachelors ever acquire the art of keeping, or economizing the profits of their labor; and hence the vulgar remark that bachelors seldom get rich. A single man, aside of heavy expences and contingencies, must necessarily pay a thousand small sums in the course of a year, which would be saved in a family. A woman of any understanding will always contract her expences within her husband's income, provided she knows what that income is. I have no doubt many deceive their wives in this article, and when they fall in arrears, lay all the blame to their extravagance. Such a conduct is eventually mean and criminal.

For my own part, I once indulged the same apprehensions of the expensiveness of a married life, and doubted my abilities to support it. But in the fascination of love, I ventured to try the experiment, and have yet no cause to repent of my rashness. Either I earn more money by a diligent attention to business, or I spend less in useless amusements, or my partner is a better economist than I was when a bachelor.—Whatever may be the reason, I find subsistence as easy as before; and I flatter myself have added to the sum of social felicity.

The merit of the American ladies is universally acknowledged and all objection to matrimony, arising from an apprehension of the expence, will be renoved as soon as a man is heartily in love. I recommend to all young men to be industrious, and to all of 25 years of age, to run the hazard of being as happy as your humble servant,

PHILANDER."