V. Study each other's likes and dislikes.-Seek to discover what each of you do not like, and seek to avoid bringing it into unnecessary prominence. Try and find out what special thing it was that most charmed you before you were married, and be content to be charmed with it after. If you liked a cheerful laugh, a sunny smile, and a friendly chat then, do what you can to draw these out now. The heartiest laugh, the most radiant smile, and the freest talk are yours now as much as then. That which was such a joy then, depend upon it ought to be so now. Be on the look-out for all the good qualities in each other, and seek to draw these out into greater prominence, and in time you will find defects and blemishes will disappear, or scarcely ever be recognised. This means care, watchfulness, and attention, but it is also certain that wherever such is given good results will follow. As one well remarks :"Few people are insensible to the value of a happy home; but very many seem to suppose that this blessing ought to exist as a matter of course-that nothing need be done to secure it-that if home is not happy, the fact certainly is sad enough, but what can be done?—it is a misfortune, and we can only regret it. This is a great mistake. The feelings, and dispositions, and habits of mothers and fathers, of sons and daughters-these make the happiness of home. And these feelings, and dispositions, and habits, what are they but the results of cultivation-of thought and training? Let the parent, then, who fails to make home happy set to work and learn, as he or she would set to work to attain any other thing upon which welfare and happiness depended."

It was the realisation of this help which led an old author to say that when a man secured a good wife, "He has now four eyes for speculation, four hands for operation, four feet for ambulation, and four shoulders for sustentation." Yes, happy is the man who can say :

"When through dark wilds and doubtful mazes
O'er thorny paths perplexed I rove,
And many a luring meteor blazes,

And patience many an hour hath strove;
When worn with care, my spirit sinking,
No more elastic, strong, and free,
Despondency's sad draught is drinking,
And hopes like fading shadows flee;
Oppressed, half weary of my life,
Thou art my solace, faithful wife!

"When, duty's urgent call obeying,

I wander from that home and thee,
My truant thought is ever straying
Backward thy gentle face to see;
And when again my footsteps turning

Bear me thy warm embrace to meet,
That thought with fond impatience burning
Sweeps onward than the wind more fleet,
And stays not till, life of my life,

It rests with thee, my charming wife!

"When comes at length the hour of meeting,
I give and take the fervent kiss;
Oh, with the thrill of such a greeting,

Can earth compare another bliss?

The joy of that eternal union

That ransomed spirits round God's throne
Unites in heaven's own blest communion,

Excels it, but excels alone;

That be it mine, to endless life,

With thee to share, my angel wife!"

Find out, also, as soon as you can, each other's preferences, and then set to work with all the earnestness and love at your command to anticipate each other's wishes. This was the secret of the happy days of courtship. Married people should treat each other as lovers all their life if they desire to be really happy. If this were done bickering and quarrelling would be almost unknown. You seldom hear of lovers falling out if they have a strong attachment to each other. If they do have a little tiff they soon find it needful to make it up, and the breach is soon mended. It should be so with you. The wife should be more devoted

than ever after she is married, if she would desire to have a bright and cheerful home, and the husband should endeavour to be more fond, if possible, than ever when he comes home. Many a husband seems to forget this. He would never have thought of breathing a harsh word to his sweetheart, but, alas! he will scold his wife without a single pang. Many a wife sits and mopes and looks glum when her husband comes home, who used to be all smiles and full of cheerful words when he came courting her. It is such mistakes which prevent happiness and hinder the fullest joys of life being attained. If you will seek to enter into the spirit of this advice you will find when old age shall creep upon you that it has not ceased, for you will, with Moore, say

"Oh no! not e'en when first we loved,

Wert thou as dear as now thou art;

Thy beauty then my senses moved,
But now thy virtues bind my heart.
What was but passion's sighs before,

Has since been turn'd to reason's vow;
And though I then might love thee more,
I love thee better now.

Trust me,

"Although my heart, in earlier youth,
Might kindle with more wild desire,
Believe me it has gained in truth

Much more than it has lost in fire.

The flame now warms my inmost core

That then but sparkled on my brow,
And though I seem'd to love thee more,
Yet, oh, I love thee better now."

VI. Do not expect perfection in each other.-Should you discover some little defect or trivial fault in each other, do not allow such things to make any unfavourable impression on your mind, but seek to make every possible allowance, remembering that as no man or woman is perfect, it is the duty of each to seek to cover infirmities rather than expose them to the idle gaze of the world. Above all things never talk at one another.

If you should happen at any time to disagree or differ upon any matter--and it is more than probable that you will do so-be on your watch against allowing any soreness or bitterness to exist in your spirit because you could not have all your own way. Remember it was a custom among some of the heathen, to extract the gall from the victim offered in sacrifice at the marriage solemnity, as illustrative of the importance of allowing nothing which would embitter the married life to be in any way asssociated with it.

Pope, with exquisite good sense, says: "Nothing hinders the constant agreement of people who live together but mere vanity-a secret insisting upon what they think their dignity or merit, and inward expectation of such an over-measure of deference and regard as answers to their own extravagant false scale, and which nobody can pay, because none but themselves can tell readily to what pitch it amounts to." There are thousands of homes which would, doubtless, be happy if this passage were written in letters of gold over the mantelpiece and acted upon.

As

VII. Beware of the last word.—Yes, above all things do not be anxious to have what is called "the last word." one says, "It is the most dangerous of infernal machines. Husband and wife should no more fight to get it than they would struggle for the possession of a lighted bombshell. Married people should study each other's weak points, as skaters look out for the weak parts of the ice, in order to keep off them. Sugar is the substance most universally diffused through all natural products. Let married people take a hint from this provision of Nature."

Perhaps the best cure for this kind of spirit is to adopt the plan which led a husband to say, "When my wife's tit is upon her I yield to her, when my fit is on me she yields to me, and so we never strive together, but asunder.”

VIII. Be anxious to meet round your own fireside.—Tho longer you are spared to live together cultivate this desire, and aim at this end. You will never regret it. As the