Falling in love is the expected and proper prelude to marriage. As presently interpreted, this means that you marry for love and that you work at it after marriage. A successful marriage is the final realization of a romantic attraction. A good marriage is one that contributes freely and fully to personality development; a poor marriage is one that hinders it. Getting married is primarily a romantic adventure with an emphasis upon individual rights and freedom from parental control, rather than a carefully reasoned choice involving a prudent weighing of other factors important for a lifelong union. Passionate attachment and anticipated happiness outweigh such considerations as companionship, cultural similarities and common social experience.

Romance is beautiful. Wonderful. But as the primary basis for selection of matrimonial mates? On which to build a lifelong union?

Perhaps most essential is the importance of similarity of social background for marital success. This means that like hould marry like. "Marriage," writes a well-known family sociologist, "involves living with a person, not merely loving him." It is this prosaic fact that places romantic love in its proper proportions as a basis for marriage. Romance must be termed the prelude to the more sober and realistic consideration of a mate hut. Do you agree, my sweethearts…?



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