PREFACE. IT T were, of course, the merest truism to assert that more that half the world's inhabitants die before manhood. Leaving these out of our calculation, the fact is apparent that those who marry vastly preponderate over those who do not. In any civilised community most persons who have arrived at a marriageable age are either married already, or are more or less likely, at some future day, to become so. Hence, it results that those who marry during their lives enormously outnumber those who remain single. And yet, notwithstanding this, almost as many single persons-especially in the paths of literature and philanthropy-have risen to pre-eminent fame as persons who have married. The greatest reformer that ever lived-One not to be named in the same breath with any of those whose portraits are drawn in scanty outline in the ensuing pages-was, as every one knows, unmarried. And so were many of his devoted followers, who adorned his doctrines by worthy deeds. |
