Iowa news. [volume] (Dubuque, Upper Mississippi Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory) 1837-1841, 1837-08-05
MAN "a AND woMAN---BY WASHINGTON IRVING.

MAN AND woMAN---BY WASHINGTON IRVING.
IT'S common practice with those who hay
ouuived the susceptibility of carly feeling, /
nave oeen broughtup in the CAV heartlessness {
dissiPated life, to laugh at all love stories. an
70 treat the tales Of romantic passion as mer
hctlons OF novelists and poets NV obserya
uons on human nature have induced me /
think otherwise. They have convinced m
that, however the surface of the character ma
be chilled and frozen by cares of the world. !
cultivated into mere smiles by the art Of socie
tty, still there are dormant fires lurking in tn
breast of the coolest bosom, which when ono
enkindled become impetuous. and are some
times desolatlng in their effects. Indeed. an
true believer in the blind deity, and po 4
the full extent of his doctrines. Shall cor
fess it! believe in broken hearts. and ~,
possibility Of dying of disappointed love.
40 not, however, consider it malady ofte,
ialai 70 my own sex; but firmly believe tina
early grave.
Man is the creature ofinterest and ambition
MS nature leads him forth into the struggle
and hustle of the world. Love is but the EN-
oelilshment Of his early life, or a song piped
IN the interval of the acts. He seeks for fame
'or fortune, for space in the worlds thought
ana dominion over his fellow men: but wo.
mans life is history of the affections. The
heart is her world: it is there her ambition
strlves TOR empire---it is there her avarce seeks
for hidden treasures. She sends forth her SYM
pathles on adventure; and if shipwrecked, her
case is hopeless, for it is bankruptcy of the
heart.
Toa man, the disappointment of love may
occasion some bitter pangs: it wounds some
feelings oftenderness---it blasts some prospects
OF felicity: but he is an active being---he may
disslpate his thoughts in the whirl of varied
occupations, or may plunge into the tide of
Pleasure--or, if the scene of his disappoint-
ment be tho full of painful associations, he can
shit his abode at all. But woman's is COM
Paratlvely fixed, a secluded, and medta-
tive life. She is more the companion of her
own thoughts and feelings; and if they are
turned to ministers of sorrow, where shall she
look for consolation! Ifunhappy in her love,
her heart is like some fortress that has been
captured, and sacked, and abandoned, and
lett desolate. With her the desire Of the heart
mas failed; the great charm of existence is at
an end. She neglects all the cheerful exerci-
SEES which gladden. the tide of life in heal.hful
currents through the veins. Her rest is bro
ken---the sweet refreshment Of sleep is poison
ed by melancholy dreams, ssuntil her enfeebed
frame sinks under the slightest external inju.
ry." Look for her, after little while. and
you find friendship weeping over her untimely
grave, and wondering that one who but lately
glowed with all the radiance of health and
beauty, should SO speedily be brought down
to darkness and the worm.' You will be told
OF some wintry chill, some casual indisposi-
ton, that laid her low; but few know Of the
mental malady that previously sapped her
strength, and made her SO easy prey to the
sspolier. How many bright eyes grow dim!---
no" many soft cheeks grow pale!--how many
lovely forms fade into the tomb, victims Of
blasted hopes, and withered Joys!
Woman is like some tender tree, the pride
and beauty Of the grove--graceful in it's form,
bright in its foliage, but with the worm prev
ing at its heart. We find it suddenly wither-
ing where it should be most luxuriant. We
see 1t dropping its branches to the earth, and
shedding leaf after leaf, until, wasted and per
lshed away, it falls, even in the stiffness Of
the forest; and as we muse over the beautiful
rum, we strive in vain to recollect the blast or
thunderbolt that could have smitten it with de-
cay.
:. have seen many instances Of women thus
disappearing gradually from the earth, and
have repeatedly fancied that could trace
their death through the various declensions Of
consumption, cold, debility, languor, and me-
lancholy, until reached the first symptom of
disappointed love. The canker worm Of grief
grows slowly, but alas! too surely upon the
heart OF its devoted victim. Its ravages are
unnotlced by the casual observer, but the keen
and discerning ofhuman mind--that most mys..
ferrous emanation from the creative powers of
the Almighty, ---discovers in the halt decked
sigh, the off starting tear, the heavy cloud of
sorrow casting its shadows upon the brow, the
occasional lapse into melancholy, and anon
the forced and unnatural bursts Of apparently
high spirits, sure tokens Of that mental con-
sumption which bids defiance to the llfe-rev-
wing powers of medicine, to the utmost care
and skill Of the ablest physician Wo, then,
be to that man who trifes with the human heart
as it were thing Of Iightimport--who having
sought till he obtained the answering look Of
love from woman's eye,' that undeniable proof
OF the return of his affections, cast aside as
valueless the heart he then knows to be his
own! No word of reproach from the injured
one may assail his ear, and this absence ofre-
proof from without may lull the accusations of
his inward monitor, but he may rest assured
that, in the eyes of God, he is regarded as a
murderer. His strict tables of Justice admit
not OF the paliiations that man will conjure up
In his own eyes; and this he will feel when
reason, asserting her sway over his passions,
convince him of the cruelty and injustice ofhis
conduct. He will then seek to hide his very
head for shame. But his remorse is now in
vain for her whom death has already secured
as a. MS prize; no earthly power can reanimate
the heart now cold in the grave, and the con-
viction that she, whom his neglect has placed
where she is forever beyond the reach Of repa-
ration, embitters reflection to the last moment
n d4S6SSis SSs1or .a.iov uiousn. .--t,
~ ~ ih6 Indians about the 18th July. They
me that they found him near the