OR, THE

RIGHT RELATIONS OF THE SEXES:

DISCLOSING

he Laws of Conjugal Selection,

AND SHOWING

WHO MAY, AND WHO MAY NOT MARRY.

BY S. R. WELLS,

NEW PHYSIOGNOMY "HOW TO READ CHARACTER," AND EDITOR OF

THE PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL.

NEW YORK:

SAMUEL R. WELLS, PUBLISHER,

389 BROADWAY.

1870.

HG 734 148

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869,

BY S. R. WELLS,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

DAVIES & KENT, Stereotypers and Electrotypers, 183 WILLIAM ST., N. Y.

PREFACE.

AN a happy union of two ripe, rich, congenial, and loving human hearts, satisfied and cemented in a thorough understanding of each other, and a perfect adaptation to each other, in the well-adjusted bands of holy wedlock, what can be more pleasing to contemplate? Science and revelation, God and nature, approve the match, and endless blessings crown the nuptials. The noble and loving husband with his beautiful and loving wife now enter together upon the new duties and the pleasant responsi- · bilities of domestic life. By such a union a new family is established, and a heaven on earth begins. What other interest, what other relation or condition, is comparable in importance with this?

If the motive for marriage be high and holy; if the parties be of proper age, of sound body and mind; and if there be an irresistible affinity for each other, such as will not only truly unite their souls, but hold them firmly together through all trials and to all time, then it is both their privilege and their duty to unite in the holy bonds of matrimony. Of such relations are born children-offspring of love and design rather than of lust and of chance—more favorably organized, harmonious, self-regulating, law-abiding, well-disposed. Now reverse the picture. Consider the many incongruous matches, or mis-matches, made among all classes. How little thought is given to steps of such momentous import! how selfish the motives of many, and how fatal to happiness the results! First, there are the ignorant and thoughtless; second, the selfish and sordid; third, the vain and ambitious; fourth, the lustful and dishonest. The first of these marry in haste and repent—too late―ît their leisure, regretting all their lives the inconsiderate step. Children born to them are often unwelcome, a burden, and "in the way." They grow up in poverty and ignorance, filling our poor-houses. The second class seldom realize anything more than the deep disappointment which, by their cupidity, they deserve. If the laws of hereditary descent are applicable to the human as to the animal creation, the children of such an alliance will be low, if not pre