5108. MARRIAGE, Harmony in.—
Harmony
in the married state is the very first
object to be aimed at. Nothing can preserve
affections uninterrupted but a firm resolution
never to differ in will, and a determination
in each to consider the love of the other as of
more value than any object whatever on
which a wish had been fixed. How light in
fact is the sacrifice of any other wish when
weighed against the affections of one with
whom we are to pass our whole life! And
though opposition in a single instance will
hardly of itself produce alienation, yet every
one has their pouch into which all these
little oppositions are put; while that is filling
the alienation is insensibly going on, and
when filled it is complete.—
To Mary Jefferson Eppes.
D. L. J., 246.
(Pa.,
1798)