Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/238

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am now entring upon the Particulars of, so fatal. Marriage 1s a Yoke, so it is very well represented, in which the Creatures yoked are to draw together. If they are unequally yoked; what is the Consequence? the Plough goes not forward, the weak Horse draws all the Load, and is oppress'd, and, at length, both sink together; the Family is confused; the Affairs of it are at a Stand; the Family-Peace is destroyed; the Interest of it neglected; and, in a word, all goes wrong, till at last Ruin breaks in, and both the unhappy Creatures are lost and destroyed together.

This being the Case, the Inequalities and Unsuitables of Matrimony are far from being. Trifles, that are to be disregarded and ventured on; unless by such People to whom it is indifferent, whether they live happy or no, and that can be as happy with an unsuitable Match as with a suitable one. I know there are such Kinds of People in the World, whose very Souls are indolent and asleep; who receive no Impressions of Grief or Joy, Pain or Pleasure, and whose Minds are, as 1t were, perfectly passive in Life; unconcerned in whatever happens to them, that neither look before them or behind them, one Way or t'other, but rise in the Morning to go to Bed at Night, rise up on purpose to sit down again, and sit down only to rise up. These are indeed fit to marry in this manner; they are the Family of the Easy Ones, and to them 'tis all one to be happy or unhappy, bless'd or unbless'd, quiet or unquiet; Frowns are all one to them as Smiles, and bad Words as good; they neither Taste the sour or the sweet; the Musick of the Viol, or the Scraping of a Kettle, is alike to them, andthey