WIVES.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 152, 11 December 1863, Page 1 (Supplement)

WIVES.

® [From the Saturday Review]. A CI/evee man, like anybody else, may marry a clever woman, a merely sensible woman, a fool, or an echo. Of these four varieties of wives, the last is unquestionably the least to be coveted. Habitual fractiousness is a decided drawback in the partner of one’s joys, and flippancy or frivolity is not always congenial: but neither a fractious woman nor a flippant woman can do a husband any serious harm, though they may be very unp easant at tiie time. It is different when ho a vakes to And himself married to his shadow tj a woman who may have been accomplished and even slightly thoughtful, but who is so weakly endowed with individuality that before they have been married three months she has sunk into a mere echo of himself. Originally, perhaps, she was able to pronounce opinions worth listening to, and which he was glad to have, but all her powers have fled before his superiority like an unfixed photograph before the sun. From being a stimulant, she has degenerated into a mei-e absorbent. He married in the hopes of finding a sort of “ guide, philosopher, and friend,” and discovers that after all, he has only doubled himself Once she might have been to him, in Mr Tennyson’s words, “ as water is to wine,” and the result of their combination bears a natural resemblance to their detestable compound—negus. The fact is, that a clever man, above all others, requires a slightly acidulous element in his companion. All clever men are more or less infected with vanity. It may be blatant, and offensive, it may be excessive and not unamusing, or it may show itself just as a bare but it is never entirely absent, and needs to be counteracted by something more potent than a hot and sugary intellectual negus. A clever husband, like a good despot, will be all the better for a little constitutional opposition. If hi .most constant companion is ever flattering, ever kind, his natural share of self-love is sure to grow both unhealthy, large in quantity, and unworthily little in quality. The height of domestic felicity would' not probably be attained by a man whose wife could set him right in a Greek quotation, or oppose his views about Hebrew points, or thwart him in his theory of the origin of evil; but still less where he has never been treated to an occasional dose of wholesome and vigorous dissent, and is allowed to make assertions and advance opinions without fear of criticism, or .chance of opposition Solitude tends to make a man think a great deal too highly of himself, but this quasi- solitude is still worse, where he only secs his own mental shadow, and hears his own mental echo. Of course, in many marriages, the wife is no more a companion to her husband than his housekeeper or his cook ; and there may be no more genuine intercourse between them than is implied by two men going into partnership in business. In such cases mental qualities are not of much importance. A head equal to the arithmetic of weekly bills, and a heart that does not quail before the emergencies of the nursery, are amply sufficient to answer all purposes. Hut where a man makes a companion of his wife, the variety of woman he selects palpably makes a great difference, not solely in external comfort, but in maintaining the vigor of his character.