The highest, purest, best and holiest relation in life, is that of marriage, which ought never to be regarded as a mere civil contract, entered into from worldly ends - but as an essential union of two minds, by which each gains a new power, and acquires new capacities for enjoyment and usefulness. Much has been said and written about the equality of the sexes, and the rights of woman; but little of all that has been said or written on this subject is based upon a discriminating appreciation of the difference between man and woman; a difference provided by the Creator, who made them for each other, and stamped upon the spirit of each, an irresistible tendency towards marital union. Timothy Shay Arthur was a popular 19th-century American author most famous for his temperance novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There. He was also the author of dozens of stories for Godey"s Lady"s Book. Arthur did much to articulate and disseminate the values, beliefs, and habits that defined respectable life in America. Arthur was one of the most popular and widely read author of his time.