The Myth in Marriage

Marriage is a subject of interest to all adults, and at one time in almost every life it is the vision that fills the horizon.

To many it is a mirage.

To a few it proves to be the hills from whence cometh their strength. The rising sun of romance tips every blade of grass, every leaf and flower and twig, with the mystery and miracle of color and perfume.

The noonday light reveals truth that the half-light of the dawn could not show.

And evening twilight garners all the richness of marriage.

The purpose of this book is to enlighten by bringing into the light of day experiences that must come into the lives of women and men.

--Alice Hubbard.

The Myth in Marriage

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.--Emerson.

ROMANCE

The object of love expands and grows before us to eternity, until it includes all that is lovely, and we become all that can love.--Thoreau.

Marriage, although a most common incident in life, is understood as little as is birth, life and death. People are perpetually ignorant on the subject, and insist upon remaining in this state until the veil of their temple is rent in twain, and their holy of holies has daylight thrown upon it.

Love is a sacred mystery whose secret is as yet locked away from mortals. We recognize a few of its manifestations and dream of its power. We connect it in our thoughts with marriage and birth, but we assume its presence: we do not bring proof.

Love is spirit, and can not be analyzed nor understood.

The most that man can apprehend of it is to know its absence or its presence. Its most refined manifestations have come to us with the development of intellect.

There are only a few examples of the manifestation of great love in history. So rare are the people capable of its expression that the whole world wonders and in awe has said that the Creator is Love.

And lovers have been set apart as belonging to the Great Mystery and revered in degree as is the Source of Love.

One of the phases of this manifestation in people is the desire to give. The lover withholds nothing from his beloved. There is one desire--to give all. Thus is the mind expanded until it reaches truth never before seen.

Love is the enlightener of the soul. It is the all-seeing eye that discovers the highest possibilities in man. Its eternal desire is to fulfil these.

"I can do no ill, because I could not meet the beloved on terms of equality if there were any stain upon my soul. My hands and my heart must be clean."

Love's longing is to be entirely whole, clean and strong.

Love would never deceive. It is kindred only to truth and good.

All of life is sacred to the lover, and all life is sacred to him.

The lover is not so anxious that the beloved shall be perfect, as that she herself, he himself, shall be without blemish. Love purifies the lover. Love makes the lover clean.

There is no such thing as unrequited love, for to have loved is all the compensation there is. The soul asks no more.

There is a sublime dignity in love--a majesty that suggests unlimited power.