WHY MEN MARBY.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 June 1920, Page 4

WHY MEN MARBY.

I have asked a number of women to give me their honest views as to the motive, that impels men to marry. It is the orthodox opinion that uue real incentive to marriage is love. But less than half of my women acquaintances adduce affection as man’s chief reason for taking a wife. One of my correspondents writes that “a feeling of loneliness about the age of thirty-five urges many men to get married.” Another states that men are only grown-up children, and they want a woman to ‘mother’ thqm.” A third informant asserts that “men marry because a wife is cheaper than a housekeeper.” These feminine views upon the nature of man are interesting but not very convincing. I grant that all the reasons suggested actuate certain types of men. It is true that a yearning for companionship induces a proportion of men of mature age to entertain thoughts of matrimony, and that this longing may not be accompanied by a romantic ardour. The theory that men are big boys who need a second mother is a)so tenable, but it does not apply to a very large number of my sex. I suppose there are a few men who imagine that it is more economical to marry than to pay a housekeeper to manage tbe home, but I can only say that I have never met them irt my wanderings. The great majority of men marry because they are in love with one woman, who, for the time being at all events, seems the embodiment of charm and virtue. There are degees of this infatuation, but the basis is love and esteem.

The .conventional view that most men marry because they are in 'ove is the truth of the matter .

No doubt I shall be challenged to define “love.”

I would reply that the emotion that impels a man to choose one women from the crowd as a partner for life is only to be described as love. The impulse to possess the desired woman is the universal and eternal manifestatiom of manly love resulting in marriage. Freedom of choice in tfie selection of a partner in wedlock is less restricted among men than among women, partly through the fact that women outnumber men. The comparative economic independence of men gives them an advantage over w omen in selecting mates. I am not attempting to claim that men possess a higher capacity for love than women possess. But I submit that the inspiration to marriage among the mass of men arises from affection.