One of the greatest causes of unhappiness, nay, misery, in the world, is the steady adherence to the superstition that two young people who feel, when in each other's company, the sexual excitement that is so often mistaken for love, must marry. It is folly for which thousands upon thousands are constantly paying a most fearful price. Love! Why, love means self sacrifice. It means wisdom. Many a man for love has remained a bachelor all his life.
Nature has decreed that certain dispositions will antagonize certain other dispositions. Marriage is often so hasty that these faulty dispositions are not discovered until after marriage, when it is too late to retreat, no matter how much it may be desired.
1st. Two people of similar complexion and temperament should never marry. If they do it will prove a failure.
2nd. Two tall, slim people or two short, heavy-set people should not marry.
3rd. A nervous, fidgety person should never marry another nervous person.
4th. A man should never marry a woman who is given to finding fault, or who is peevish and "cranky," or who scolds her little brothers and sisters.
5th. A woman should never marry a man who is naturally inclined to be arrogant and cruel, or who is inordinately selfish.
Don't marry a girl whose chief aim in life is dress ; who hangs around dry goods or millinery stores like butterflies around a gorgeous flower.
To dress extravagantly is a blot upon any woman's character. When the activity of the mind is taken up with finery the soul grows pinched and lean, the mind fails to develop, and such a woman cannot make a decent partner for any sensible man.
So, too, should no girl think of accepting any young man for a lover who is addicted to the use of liquor, or who spends his money in speculation or in fast living. Shun such as you would for an idiot or a fool.
The most important of these is the keeping alive and at its best the sexual desires. This is the highest part of your nature and should be held sacred. Constant or uninterrupted indulgence is sure to destroy its enjoyment and destroy the happiness for both.
Taken from popular medical guide "Vitalogy" published in 1899, as printed in the liner notes to Pearl Jam's Vitalogy.