NEWTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 1127, 25 June 1867, Page 5

NEWTON.

"HOW TO CHOOSE A •WIFE."

Me. Stackpool O'Dell delivered a lecture last evening in tlie Kewton Hall, on tlie above momentous theme ; and to place the information within the reach of all, it was vouchsafed for the low charge of sixpence. There was a goodly audience of both sexes, so that the objective and subjective aspects of the subject were fairly represented. The title, however, is to some extent, a misnomer. It takes two to make a bargain. Has the fair one no choice F Is the negative power of veto never exercised, or are " rejected addresses" a mere figure of speech ? In Anglo-Saxon communities, at least, not even a phrenologist may " throw the handkerchief" as if he were the Sultan. jVIr-. O'Dell set out by describing the marital laws of ancient Borne and Greece, whose pains and penalties against celibacy he highly commended, and also alluded to the principles relating thereto laid down in the Talmud and the Koran. Early marriage was desirable whether regarded from a physiological, moral, or social point of view ; and the ancients in the interest of the State regarded it as a fitting subject for legislation. l)omcstic misery too frequently arose from ill-assorted marriages—from a lack of congeniality of thought, feeliDg, and temper. He would caution young men against committing themselves to such a contract, until assured that the objects of their preference were in accord with them on these points. A sound mind in a sound body was the great desideratum. Although he was not a Benedict as yet, when the young lady appeared who came up to his phrenological and biological ideal, the " man and the hour" would have come. Those who were not married by 40, or remained in celibacy after that, might be regarded as afflicted with insanity. If so, like Hamlet, there is method in their madness. As to the modus operandi by which a wife might be chosen, the lecturer was singularly reticent; still from the pictures drawn of | domestic life, it was clear that some Benedict had been revealing " the' secrets of his prison house." He made no allowance for what the French emphatically term le grand passion, or love at first sight, and altogether sccuted the poetic theory touching marriages being "made in Heaven." While less gifted individuals would [ sue for the hand, our modern philosopher claims the head, and pending a " full study" would subscribe his Lillet doux " yours without prejudice." So far as Colonial life is concerned, we fear the great mass will prefer taking the matrimonial "header," in the usual way ; and while the existing disparity between the sexes continues, the words of the little Twickenham poet will be true in domestic as in natural history, There swims no goose, to crey, but, soon or late, She finds some honest gander for a mute. —Mr. O'Dell, while not likely to speak in strains that would " create a soul ev'n under the ribs of death," has a happy knack of enlivening his colloquial style with quaint flashes of humour. After the discourse came the " heads," and, as was to be expected under the circumstances, the young gentlemen, when " poll'd," were found to be strongly in favour of—" amativeness," and " union for life !"