Litchfield enquirer., 1841-09-16
THE DRUNKARD'S WIFE.
BY EL1HU BURRIrr-rHE LEARNED BLAcKsM1

CHARACTER, WHICH, ike tne fgnt OF distant
stars, are yet to visit the eye of mar and op-
crate upon human society. Ever since the
image Of the Godhead was sketched in Eden,
its great Author and angels have been paint
ing upon il; men have tried their hands up.
on it; influences like the incessant breath of
heaven, have left each its line upon the can
vass; still the finishing stroke of the pencil
will not be accomplished until the last, lin
geRing survivor of -" the wreck of matter and
the crush of worlds is changed in the twink
ling of an eye"
The hemisphere of the present age is stud
ded all over with such pearls "and patines
of bright gold," as never shone before in the
heavens Of the human soul. In these latter
days, the waves of time have washed up
from depths that angels never fathomed,
"gemS ofpurer light serene" than were ever
worn before in the crown of man. We are
now but half way advanced in a new cycle
of human history. The race is but Just
emerging from the long reaching shadows of
an iron age, and coming out into the starlight
and sunlight of new influences. If, as We are
assured, scores of new stars have taken rank
with the heavenly hosts within the last two
centuries, stars brighter than they, have, in
the same period, kindled up new lights in
the moral armament. Among these new
stars, one little lower than that OF Bethle-
hem, had just appeared above the horizon
1t is the star of WoMAN's INrLuRNcE. Influ-
entail Woman is a being of two centuries
up to that period, and almost hitherto, her
influences upon human character and socie-
| ty. like the feeble rays OF Arising winters
sun upon polar fields of ice. b. HEN sun is
| reaching upward. There is:a glorious me
ridian, 10 which she shall as surety cagne ms
to-morrow's sun shall reach his in our natn-
raj heavens. What man will be, when she
shall shine upon him then and thence, We
are unable to divine but we can found aleI
anticipation from the influence of her dawn
ing rays. Hermorning light has gilded iae
visions of human hope, and silvered over the
night shadows of human sorrow. There bas
been no depths of human misery beyond The
reach of her ameliorating influence, nor tAT
height OF human happiness which she Ms
not raised still higher. Whoever has touch
ed at either of these extrenhities, or at any
of their intervening points, could attest thatN
"neilher height nor depth, nor prihcipalities
nor powers, nor things present or to come, /"
could divert or vitiate the accents and a1o-
dvnes of her love. Whether we trace the
lineaments Of her character in the mild twi.
light of her morning sun, or in the living
beams of her risen day, we find that she has
touched human society like an angel. It
would be irreverent to, her worth to say, in
what walks of life she has walked most like
an angel of light and love in what vicssi.
tudes, in what joys or sorrows, in what situa-
tions or circumstances, she has most signally
discharged the heavenly ministrations of her
mission; what ordeals have best brought out
lions Of earthi1S a glh!d iddsn egels What fru
ton, have best declared the fneness of her
gold. Still there is a scene, which has "es-
capped the vulture's eye" and almost every
other eve, where she has cast forth her cost
Hest pearls, and shown such qualities OF her
native character as almost merit our adora-
ton. This scene has been allotted to the
pRuNKARp's WIFE. How she has filled this
most desperate outpost of humanity, will be
revealed when the secrets of human life shall
be disclosed ITO more worlds than this. =
When the history of novels, and OF murky
garrets shall be given in; when the career
Of the enslaved inebriate shall be told, from
the first to the lowest degree Of his degrada-
tion-there will be memorial made Of wo-
man, worthy of being told and heard in
heaven. From the first moment she gave up
her young and hoping heart, and all its trea-
sures into the hands of him she loved, to the
luckless hour when the charmer, wine, fast.
ened around that loved one, all the serpent
spells of its sorcery-down through all the
crushing of her young born hopes-through
wears of enlargement and strange insanity
f-when harsh unkindness bit at her heart
strings with an adder's too:h-thence down
through each successive depth of disgrace
and misery, until she bent over the drunk
ards grave-through all these scenes, halo
of divinity has gathered around her, and
stirred her to angel deeds of love. When
the maddened victim tried to cut him adrift
| from the sympathy and society OF God and
man, she has chung to him and held him TO
her heart "with hooks of Steel" And when
he was cast out all defled with his leprous
pollution-when he was reduced to such
THING as the beasts of the field would below
at-there was one who still kept him throned
| in her heart of hearts who could say over
the tallen, dwelling creature, Although
you are nothing to the WORLD. you are an
the world to Me-" When that aw1ui inSani,
ty of the drunkard set in upon him, with all
iis fiendish shapes of torture while he lay
writhing beneath the scorpion stings OF the
| fiery phantasies and furies Of DELIRIUM IRE
MENs-theYe was woman by his side, eBsiav-
ed with all the attributes of her IoveIiEess.-
There was her fearful love-beaming eye,
that never dimmed but with tears when the
black spirits were at him. There she stood
alone. and in lone hours of night, to watch
his breathngs, with her heart braced with
the omnipotence of her love. No! brute as
he was, not tie which her young heart had
thrown around him in his bright days, had
ever given way, bat had grown stronger as
he approached the nadir of his degradation
And II he sank into that dark, hopeless grave,
she enswathed him in her broken heart, and
laid il in his coffin or if some mighty an
gels arm or voice brought him up from the
grave of drunkenness, the deepest thing ever
dug for man, he came forth Lazarus-like,