Liberty advocate. [volume] (Liberty, Miss.) 1835-1866, 1837-11-21
A BROKEN HEART.
BY WASHINGTON IRVING.

II 1t is a common thing to laugh at love
stories, and to treat the tales of romantic
passions as mere tictions of poets and no.
Eelists. that never existed in real life
s&NIore observations on human nature have
conyinced me, that however the surface OF
The character may be chilled and frozen
by the cares of the world and the pleas
lures of society, there is still a warm cur
rent of affection running through the
depths of the coolest heart, that prevents
Nit being utterly CONCEALED. Indeed am
Ia true believer in the blind deity, and go
Ito the full extent of his doctrines. Shali
HI confess it? believe in broken hearts,
and the possibility of dying of disappolnt-
Ned love! | do not however, consider 1t a
AmaIady often fatal to my own SEX but l
firmly believe that it withers down many
u IA lovely woman into an early grave
Man is the creature of interest and am
btion. His nature LEADS him forth INTO
8the struggle and hustle Of the world
#Loye IS but the establishment OF early
3HCe, or a song piped into the interval OF
the acts. He seeks for iame--tor fortune
for space in the worlds thought, and
a dominion over his fellow man. But the
woman's life is history of the affections.
Il The heart is her world, it is there ambition
N strives for empire, it is there her avarIce
u seeks for hidden treasure. She sends
forth her simpathies on adventure; she
n embarks her whole soul in the traffic oil
q affection; and if shipwrecked, her case is
Il hopeless-for it is a bankruptcy OF the
IN heart.
To man the disappointment OF love
may occasion some bitter pangs;lt wounds
some feeling of tenderness--it blasts some
Il prospect of felicity; but he is an active
being--he can dssipate his tApughts IN
the whirl of various occupations on plunge
into the tide of pleasure; or if the scene Of
disappointment be too full of painful asso.
citation, he can shift his love at will, and
taking as it we're the wings OF the NOR
ming, can fly to the uttermost parts OF the
earth and be at rest.
But woman's is comparatively fixec
N and meditative life. She is more the com
panion of her own thoughts and feelings
and if they are turned to ministers OF sor
row, where shall she look for consolation
Her lot is to be wooed and won; and if un
N happy in her love, her heart is like somt
fortress that has been captured and sack
\ ed, and abandoned and left desolate.
How many bright eyes grow dim-hov
many rosy cheeks grow pale--how many
N lovely forms fade away into the tomb
y and none can tell the cause that bllghtet
their loneliness. As the dove will class
\ its wings to its side, and cover and con
ceal the arrow that is preying upon it
vitals, so it is the nature Of woman to hid'
from the world the pangs of wounded al
lection. The love of delicate female i
always shy and silent. Even when for
tunate, she scarcely breathes it to herself
but when otherwise she buries it in thu
recess of her bosom, and there let's /
cover and brood among the ruins OF he
peace. With her the desire has failed
The great charm of existence is at an end
She negIects all the cheerful exercise
that gladden. the spirits, quicken the pull
ses, and send the tide Of life in healthfu
currents through the veins. Her rest il
broken--the sweet refreshment Of sleep i
poisoned by melancholy dreams--'dry
sorrow drinks her Blood until her enfee
bed frame sinks under the last eterna
nssallant. Look to her after little while
and you will find friendship weeping owe
her untimely grave and wondering tina
one, who but lately glowed with all the
radiance Of health and beauty, should now
be brought down to darkness and tn
worm."-You will be told of some Sigh