To fall in love, therefore, with mere outward beauty is, to dandle with a
doll, to fawn upon a picture, to rest your hopes upon a plaything, to
pursue a phantom which, as soon as you embrace it, may vanish into nothing.
Look not to external beauty alone; but also to the ornaments of an inward
spirit, of a noble mind, and an amiable and pious heart. "If," says the
Rev. H. Harbaugh, "you will be foolish, follow the gilded butterfly of
beauty, drive it a long chase; it will land you at last at some stagnant
mud-pond of the highway."
Neither is impulsive passion a true basis of marriage. This is falling in
love at first sight, which often proves to be a very dangerous and
degrading fall,--a fall from the clouds to the clods, producing both
humiliation and misery. It is indeed a fearful leap,--a leap without
judgment or forethought; and, therefore, a leap in the dark. It is too
precipitate, and shows the infatuation of the victim. Falling in love is
not always falling in the embraces of domestic felicity. Such leaping is an
act of intoxication. The drunkard, falling in the mire, often thinks that
he is embracing his best friend, whereas it is but descending to fellowship
with the swine. It is blind love, which is no love, but passion without
reason. It is crazy, fitful, stormy, raising the feelings up to boiling
point, and bringing the affections under the influence of the high-pressure
system.
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