Joy and Pleasure.
A married life is not one of unalloyed bliss. We ought not to expect this. It has its pains as well as its pleasures. As Margaret Fuller says: “Deceive not thyself by over-expecting happiness in the marriage state; look not therein for contentment greater than God will give, or a creature in this world can receive, namely, to be free from all inconveniences. Marriage is not, like the hill of Olympus, wholly clear without clouds.” When misfortune comes to us, and all the rest of the world deserts us, we have those at home to whom to look in certain expectancy of sympathy and encouragement—wife and children. As John Taylor says: “A married man falling into misfortune is more apt to retrieve his situation in the world than a single one, chiefly because his spirits are soothed and retrieved by domestic endearments, and his self-respect kept alive by finding that, although all abroad be darkness and humiliation, yet there is a little world of love at home over which he is monarch.”
A married man is more apt to labor for the good of all mankind, while a single man is apt to be more selfish in his aims and endeavors. The interests of a single man centre round himself, while those of a married man embrace his whole family, and in a larger degree the whole community.