the conventionalities of a people. Many times the attraction is to break

away from the conventional. The stronger attraction always wins -

whatever is, is best for that time and place.

 

"Tudor" says he "enters into the silence daily at a particular hour and

enjoys the mental picture of how he desires to be when married."

 

His success all depends upon the equity in that picture; upon its

truth to the law of being.

 

An impractical idealist lives in the silence with beautiful pictures of

"how he desires to be when married." When he gets married there isn't a

single detail of his daily experience which is like his mental picture.

He is sadly disappointed and perhaps embittered or discouraged.

 

It all depends upon the picture. If Tudor's picture contains a benignant

lord and master and a sweet little Alice Ben Bolt sort of wife who shall

laugh with delight when he gives her a smile and wouldn't hurt his

feelings for a farm; who does his bidding before he bids and is always

content with what he is pleased, or able, to do for her; if this is the

style of Tudor's mental picture he is certainly doomed to

disappointment.

 

I have a suspicion that Tudor is a natural born teacher. His mental

pictures may represent himself as a dispenser of moral and mental

blessings. He may see Ada sitting adoringly at his feet, ever eager to

learn. If so there will certainly be disappointment. If Tudor continues to remind her that he is her

schoolmaster she will certainly revolt; inwardly if not outwardly.

Whether the revolt comes inwardly or outwardly harmony is doomed.

 

The first principle of happy marriage is equality. The second

principle is mutual confidence, which can NEVER exist without the

first.

 

I do not mean by "equality" what is usually meant. One member of the

married twain may be rich, the other poor in worldly goods; one an

aristocrat, the other plebeian; one higly educated, the other not so; and

yet they may be to each other what they are in truth, equals.

 

Equality is a mental state, not a matter of birth or breeding, wisdom

or ignorance. The TRUTH is that all men and women are equal; all are

sparks of the One Life; all children of the one highly aristocratic

"Father"; all heirs to the wisdom and wealth of the ages which go to

make up eternity.

 

But all men and women are more or less unconscious, in spots at least,

of this truth. They spend their lives "looking down" upon each other.