Love the only Foundation of Happineſs in a married State; as it can only produce that high and tender Friendſhip, which ſhould always be the Cement of this Union; and, in my Opinion, all thoſe Marriages which are contracted from other Motives, are greatly criminal; they are a Profanation of a moſt holy Ceremony, and generally end in Diſquiet and Miſery: For ſurely we may call it a Profanation, to convert this moſt ſacred Inſtitution into a wicked Sacrifice to Luſt, or Avarice: And what better can be ſaid of thoſe Matches to which Men are induced merely by the Conſideration of a beautiful Perſon, or a great Fortune!
‘To deny that Beauty is an agreeable Object to the Eye, and even worthy ſome Admiration, would be falſe and fooliſh. Beautiful is an Epithet often uſed in Scripture, and always mentioned with Honour. It was my own Fortune to marry a Woman, whom the World thought handſome, and I can truly ſay, I liked her the better on that Account. But, to make this the ſole Conſideration of Marriage, to luſt after it ſo violently, as to overlook all Imperfections for its Sake, or to require it ſo abſolutely as to reject‘and
