Marriage, young reader, is a serious concern, and courtship, if possible, still more so: and as such, I have, in the following pages, endeavored to treat them. But do not be deterred, by this caution, from a careful perusal of the work, even to the end. Serious as the subject is, it has been my object to render my remarks, especially on the proper and needful qualifications for marriage, as inviting as the nature of the case will admit, for which purpose I have introduced not a few familiar anecdotes, by way of illustration. I am, indeed, far from supposing I have exhausted my subject; but, if I have rendered the work a fit companion to the " Physiology of Marriage," my labors have not been wholly in vain.

January 1, 1857.