THE SELFISHNESS OF MARRIAGE.
♦ - The ‘‘Saturday Review” recently had a, few words on Mrs Creighton’s condemnation ’ of celibacy. As to the unselfishness inherent in marriage (it says) -there is something almost humorous in the suggestion. For is there a- step -in the whole of- life taken' so entirely without regard to any person’s feelings, opinions, or interests except those of the parties concerned as that of marriage? If it is a marriage of eonveni-
ence, it is for their convenience and not for that of anyone else. If it is a marriage of love, it is a commonplace of romance and reality alike that no one else counts at all in the matter. Is it not regarded as one of the triumphs of love that parents, brothers, sisters, friends, all, must (and do) stand aside ? Suggest to any deeply enamoured betrothed that he (or still worse she) has other motives for getting married than delight ki his fiancee, and you insult him! Nor may selfishness be got rid of by urging that it is love for the other, not for himself ; for if you suggest to either that the marriage is expedient or delightful or fortunate for the other party, he is indignant and declares that the gain is all on his side. WOMEN WHO WANT THEIR FELENDS MARRIED. There are people (the “Saturday” continues) who the moment they have done a thing themselves want everyone else to do the same. How often that is the case with married women is notorious. There are thousands of women who seem unable to contemplate a man and a maid in any other lightthan as a possible man and wife. They want every boy and girl they see‘ to marry. And the feeling grows on them until they come, to regard it as a- sign of moral depravity that , such are not man and. wife, and do not want' to be. These people are a constant irritant to the unmarried. Really we ought to remember that however happy we may be in the married estate, there are others who prefer to be single, and are neither insane nor depraved. MARRIED SLAVERY. This writer also asks:—What other than slavery is the lot of a woman of refined breeding, condemned to keep up a house and bring up her children on means hardly sufficient for existence P ifciSfe&C, '
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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 63
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393THE SELFISHNESS OF MARRIAGE. New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 63
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