MARRIAGE AND MORALS.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3199, 21 May 1879, Page 2

MARRIAGE AND MORALS.

■■ Bachelors, as they jauntily pass through life," and old maids; as they serenely' 1 gfide& through it (says a Home paper), are often 'tempted to thihk' that' the 'pleasantest places upon which the, -lines: of destiny r , hare fallen are surely theirs. But 1 thbse^ & terrible,people, thestatieians, .are at their heels ; and now, thanks to the inquiries of such a heartless philosopher as M, Bertil- : , lon, of Brussels, we learn that married m(pn dl and women, notwithstanding, domestic , squabbles and troublesome children, stand a better chance of going to their rest like shocks of corn fully ripe than single folk do. And not only so, bat married people.,-: exhibit "less tendency to suicide, to mental derangement, to assassination", to tjieft, 'and other crimes."?; Thafcj- the^ bachelor, lacking as he necessarily inuit, | to a large extent, the ' care( and fond nursing which the married man as a/rule, receives, should have a shorter life than the latter is m ot difficult to understand. _ Brit to, T what, the» connection* "between' ! celibacy, insanity, suicide, and T crime is due, is not so apparent, tit has been contended that the connection is not one . of cause and effect, but is not to be attri- : ■ buted to the fact that marriage implies a J degree of competency/and celibacy, tfptit'tioften .than nbti a state of por.ertyi^;of' [% poverty and its hopeless struggle would.: be bred the despair which terminates in ;; insanity or finds" a refuge in v suicide;"^ whilst the fairly prosperous married mail' is neither tempted to.' shuttle 1 tjff Oiffiii mortal. coil nor driven mad by, its perplexities. "VVhilst ,admitting* the J'forced of this consideration, we ■justnot >oT6rlook the pressureof greater responsibilU; : ties, and, consequently, of greater anxie* ties, which is felt by the married man, and must, therefore, with M. Bertillon, connect his general sanity and indisposi* * tion to lay rash hands on himself with some protecting influence exerted bj the a married state.' That" ihfluenoeas to: beii -J found in the society of a wife and children, tending, as such society does; to dispel those, mprbid ideas whichraTe /the precur- <^p ■ sors of insanity; and in theJcndWledge/ that suicide .would be a cowardly desertion of the weak and helpieiis in the' Very thick of the battle of; life. Ji Similarly, the singje man, c consciQus that np^one, but _ himself will do' called upon-'to 5 tiJJ^| penalty of his misdeeds, will not be re* £ strained from committing crimes by 'oofasiderationsr which weigh with the married man. In confirmation of this view, we may cite M.Bertilion's statement that " married men whohave families commit less crime than married men ■ who have not." Young' : and struggling men, to which category bachelors mostly belong, are no doubt tempted >by their Tery strength and necessitiesl to find in crime a short road to the possession of wliat they covet; but, over and, above this, they, as well as married men without families, are not arrested in their career by the weak yet strong shalt not,"-: which comes from the,, unconscious , h lips of innocent.and helpless children, Ji<" whose future it is theirs to mar or to make. " iWid'owers," says our statistician, '.Veon»-; mit suicide morethan married men/ This • ] seems to indicate the existence of A degree r of inconsolable grief among' men who lose • r their, bet^r halves' far greater "than we' \ ■ > slpul'd have ili6figlit<:p6ssit>leV'jnd^in^'byKW''the number of those who, under such circumstances, take to themselves,a second wife;; ',, ; It is"blear thaf our; fair spbusei; j|^ do not know how greatly they are "J valued by their lords, nor howthey will' - be mourned when they are gone. Children, we also learn, tend to keep married woman in the paths of virtue. We need f_npt go far to find a reason for this. When affection for a husband has died put in; ay ' wife's heart, love for the children often re-' mains in even intensified force, and prevents the springing vp < of any unlawful passion where it might otherwise be looked for. It would hardly; Thbweveir; I be; .exp&qted >jthat? ■;■ •» I widows with children should be more in* | clined to entertain Tcrinlinali thoughts than ' tljose without. Yet »o it is, according to M.nßertillon. 'The/explanation-is .pro- .n, bibly that widows with children are more often tempted to .wrongdoing through inability to provide for the little ones who are dependent on them. We are not inplined to attach undue importance to these statistics; but if the publicationJ leMi^ husbands to form a higher estimate of the " * value;pf a/ quiet domestic life, and induces bachelors who can afford to marry, but do not, to ponder their ways,:.our lady friends, at least, will hail their appearance with'satisfaction.-,.,'... . ;,,..,,: . „t ? „..n rr ... r, -, ? : ,,