False humilities are ordered
into court, and summarily convicted by this single-eyed judge, whose
cross-examination of these 'sham respectabilities' elicits many a
suggestive practical truth. There is more of philosophy and prudence
than of romance in the excursus on _Choice in Marriage_; but the
philosophy is shrewd and instructive, uttering many a homely hint of
value in its way: as where we are reminded that if marrying _for_
money is to be justified only in the case of those unhappy persons who
are fit for nothing better, it does not follow that marrying _without_
money is to be justified in others; and again, that the negotiations
and transactions connected with marriage-settlements are eminently
useful, as searching character and testing affection, before an
irrevocable step be taken; and again, that when two very young persons
are joined together in matrimony, it is as if one sweet-pea should be
put as a prop to another. The essay on _Wisdom_ is elevated and
thoughtful, like most of the essayist's papers, but somewhat too heavy
for miscellaneous readers.
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