He teaches, that _but_ for this object it would be better not to marry.

He wishes that all were in this respect as free as himself, and calls it a special gift of God.
He does not encourage a man to desire a mutual soul intimately to share griefs and joys; one in whom the confiding heart can repose, whose smile shall reward and soften toil, whose voice shall beguile sorrow.

He does not seem aware that the fascinations of woman refine and chasten society; that virtuous attachment has in it an element of respect, which abashes and purifies, and which shields the soul, even when marriage is deferred; nor yet, that the union of two persons who have no previous affection can seldom yield the highest fruits of matrimony, but often leads to the severest temptations.

How _should_ he have known all this?
Courtship before marriage did not exist in the society open to him: hence he treats the propriety of giving away a maiden, as one in which _her_ conscience, _her_ likes and dislikes, are not concerned: 1 Cor.vii.37, 38.

If the law leaves the parent "power over his own will" and imposes no "necessity" to give her away, Paul decidedly advises to keep her unmarried.
The author of the Apocalypse, a writer of the first century, who was received in the second as John the apostle, holds up a yet more degrading view of the matrimonial relation.