Never marry but for love: Sunday Salon

The most important reading of the past week has been of the active variety - two friends asked me to read a piece of William Penn at their wedding in Rye yesterday.  I was of course happy to oblige, though the gravitas and simplicity of the message hides some complex stress shifts in the prose.  I love reading in public, but this was trickier than it looked.  But it has a fine, sonorous quality, and I thought you might enjoy it:

"Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely. He that minds a body and not a soul has not the better part of that relationship, and will consequently lack the noblest comfort of a married life.

Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. As love ought to bring them together, so it is the best way to keep them well together.

A husband and wife that love one another show their children that they should do so too. Others visibly lose their authority in their families by their contempt of one another, and teach their children to be unnatural by their own examples.

Let not enjoyment lessen, but augment, affection; it being the basest of passions to like when we have not, what we slight when we possess.

Here it is we ought to search out our pleasure, where the field is large and full of variety, and of an enduring nature; sickness, poverty or disgrace being not able to shake it because it is not under the moving influences of worldly contingencies.

Nothing can be more entire and without reserve; nothing more zealous, affectionate and sincere; nothing more contented than such a couple, nor greater temporal felicity than to be one of them."

And today, I am carry reading of a different quality to a god-daughter - Dr Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, which I am sure will be much appreciated too!

Comments

[glo]

As I am currently reading PG Wodehouse's "Meet Mr Mulliner" - and it is so delightful, I can also offer a quotation about marriage.
This is a bishop speaking to Augustine Mulliner, the curate.
"Think well, Mulliner," he said. "Marriage is a serious affair. Do not plunge into it without due reflection. I myself am a husband, and, though singularly blessed in the possession of a devoted helpmeet, cannot but feel sometimes that a man is better off as a bachelor. Women, Mulliner, are odd."
Of course, it is more likely that this fits more for a stag's night than for a wedding day...

[Mr Cornflower]

Fine passage. On first reading it the Papageno/Papagena aria from the Magic Flute popped into my head - "es ist das Hoechste der Gefuehle" - the height of happiness.

[marie]

That's a lovely thing to read at a wedding. So true!

[Peter the flautist]

Not all of us skip easily in love, for some it is a vastly more serious affair. Darkest Cat

[The Kool-Aid Mom]

That's quite a difference in reading. :-D

I like the William Penn excerpt. It is still just as important today as it was then, and perhaps more. We so easily and thoughtlessly skip to the alter in "love", then leap to the lawyer when things start getting difficult.

[Ann Darnton]

Everyone should have to read 'The Cat in the Hat' to children on at least a yearly basis. It's a very good way to establish priorities. "It's fun to have fun, but you've got to know how!"

[Julie]

Oh that's perfect. Hubby and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary next week. :)

[john]

I used to live in the Meeting House founded by William Penn and set up an exhibition about him once

[Peter the flautist]

The "Cat in the Hat" was one of my favourite books as a child; worked well for a number of years for my son too. Even better perhaps is "The Cat in the Hat comes back".