Men "look down" upon their wives as "weak" or "inferior," and women look

down upon their husbands as "animals" or "great brutes." Men are

contemptuous of their wives visionariness, and women despise their

husbands for "cold and calculating" tendencies.

 

Every man and woman values certain qualities highly, and in proportion

as another fails to manifest these particular qualities he is classed as

"low," and his society is not valued.

 

This is the great source of trouble between husbands and wives. Each

values his or her own qualities and despises the other's. So in their

own minds they are not equal, and the first principle of harmony is

missing.

 

The real truth is that in marriage a man is schoolmaster to his wife

and she is equally schoolmistress to him. This is true in a less

degree, of all the relationships of life.

 

The Law of Attraction draws people together that they may learn.

 

There is but one Life, which is growth in wisdom and knowledge.

 

There is but one Death, which is refusal to learn.

 

If husbands and wives were equals in their own minds they would not

despise each other and refuse to learn of each other.

 

The Law of Attraction, or Love, almost invariably attracts opposites,

and for their own good. A visionary, idealistic woman is drawn to a

practical man, where, kick and fuss and despise each other as they will,

she is bound to become more practical and he more idealistic. They

exchange qualities in spite of themselves; each is an unconscious agent

in rounding out the character and making more abundant the life of the

other.

 

Much of this blending of natures is accomplished through passion, the

least understood of forces. And the children of a union of opposites,

even where there is great contempt and unhappiness between the

parents, are almost invariably better balanced than either of the

parents.

 

I cannot believe that unhappy marriages are "mistakes" or that they

serve no good purpose. The Law of Attraction draws together those who

need each other at that particular stage of their growth. The

unhappiness is due to their own foolish refusal to learn; and this

refusal is due to their contempt for each other. They are like naughty

children at school, who cry or sulk and refuse to work out their

problems. Like those same naughty children they make themselves