How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
345/400

important. We are not in favour of arranged marriages because they are usually arranged for the benefit of the parents and not for the happiness of the married couple. But we do firmly believe that “ being in love ” is not the condition a priori without which marriage and love are inconceivable. A great many marriages would turn out more happily if the contracting parties gave less thought to love, and more to the matter of financial budgets, the pedagogic principles according to which the children were to be educated, the mutual use of leisure, the past performances in social cooperation, the willingness of each to share responsibility, and the like. When a man goes into a business venture or partnership for no better reason than that he likes the look of the office furniture, he is put down as a fool by his associates, but the same man, entering into marriage with a girl because she has a pretty figure, plays bridge well, and likes to go to cocktail parties, is congratulated by his friends. Ten years later he is having an affair with his secretary ; his wife is a chronic alcoholic, both are extremely unhappy, and remain together solely for the sake of their child, the neglected football which is kicked between the goal-posts of their antithetical egoisms. This is a common result of falling in love without considering more mundane prerequisites for marital cooperation before marrying. The expected marital happiness expressed in the phrase “ and they lived happily ever after ” is seldom the result of such flimsy and stupid choice of a mate. Mature hove v. Romantic hove Men and women would be far happier if they planned their marital relationships according to the deep com¬ patibilities of social, intellectual, and occupational interests, responsibilities toward children and State, mutual helpfulness, and acted “as if” love might be the reward of five or ten years of successful cooperation. bungling in the