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THE PRACTICAL PATH.
in the wordly concerns of life, and hoping to be similarly relieved by his juniors, in his own turn, in the fulness of time. At times he also had to provide for his destitute relations, but he never grumbled at the fruit of his labour being enjoyed by the less fit, or unearning members of his household, and always considered it his good fortune to be able to help others. Wealth had lost all its blinding glamour for him in his infancy, and he knew full well how much easier it was for a camel to
pass through the needle's eye' than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, for the cares and worries consequent on the management of riches and the sense of attachment to the things of the world have always been known to stand in the way of retirement from active life, preparatory to the adoption of the stage of homeless wandering which is necessary to attain nirvana.
The proper training of children, thus, is a valuable asset, and of immense help to them in their after life. It is a legitimate deduction from this that early marriage is an institution which must necessarily interfere with the proper training of the soul. Besides, it directly tends to introduce misery into the life of a family by
(1) the union of people who have neither an idea of the sexual function, nor a voice in the selection of their nuptial partner,
(2) the shortening of the period of self-control,
(3) the procreation of unfit, ill-formed and illnourished children,
(4) the occasional death of the female parent during confinement,
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