WHY WOMEN MARRY.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3114, 10 February 1879, Page 1

WHY WOMEN MARRY.

The question which re considered recently,"Why Men Marry,*' is an interesting one; but it must be pro* nounced -inferior in interest to the ques* tion, " Why Women Marry," in the degree in which men are in all .respects less .interesting than ;wotocn. The willingness of women to marry is greaUr and more patent than ti at of men; and, we wiil add, that it is a groat deal more wonderful. 'I hat women hare, to use a colloquial phrase, the worst of it all through lii'e, we entertain no doubt, and that llie matrimonial state, as underst od by experince, has, as a rule, (ewer attractions for them than for men, we also believe to be true. i*et while-there, are many men who from choice abstain from marrying, we doubt if tliere are'any women worth mentioning who refuse the married state from option and deliberation, and not niauy who post* pone marrying till a late period of life from a general repuguance to having a husband. That woman refuse individual men, and sometimes go on refusing man after mini is true enough ; Uut then their objection is to the man and not to the condition of life the man proposes; or, not un frequently,their refusal arises from mere skiuishness, from a feeling they jnay do belter, or fromi a cheerful conrio* tion that there is pleuty of time to " think about it." As a rule, however,' women who have the chance of marrying, marry; and

they would marry more than they do, W'pre it not ihat they are frequently held bach from taking a foolish step by wise pnenls or dissuwding friends. How is this apparent paradox to be explained ? Then* is less to induce women to marry than to induce men, yet men hesitate to marry, and women jump at marriage. Some will answer that men is a rational, and woman an irrational animal, but over and above the distinction being too un■;''complimentaty to be true, it is one of ' those plausible explanations that explain nothing. Again, it is sometimes affirmed that, in marrying, .men sacrifice liberty, whereas women in marrying, acquire it. But this is an epigram easily disposed of. When men sacrifice what is called their liberty by marrying, they are already tired of their liberty, or that particular form pf liberty which bachelor-hood enjoy, and were the point thoroughly examined, we suspect it would be found that they abandon a form of liberty of which they are weary for -. another form they hare not yet possessed.—Vanity Fair.