Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1851-08-13
WOMEN AND MARRIAGE.

| WOMEN AND MARRIAGE.
l have speculated great deal upon matrimo-
ny. have seen young and beautiful women,
the pride of the gay circles, married-as the
world says--wel Some have moved in cost
ly houses, and their friends have all come and
looked at their splendid arrangements for hap
piness, and they have gone away and commit
ted them to their sunny hopes, cheerfuly with
out fear. 1t is natural to be sanguine for the
young, and at such times am carried away by
similar feelings. love to get unobserved into
a corner and watch the bride in her smiling
face and her soft eyes moving before me in their
pride of life, weave a waking dream of her fu-
ture happiness, and persuade myself that it will
be true. think how they will sit on the lux
urious sofa as twilight falls, and build gay hopes
murmur in low tones the now unforbidden ten
derness, and enjoy the halowed kisses, and the
beautiful endearments of welded life will make
even their parting joyous; and how gladly they
will come back from the crowd, and the empty
mirth of the gay, to each others quiet company.
| picture to myself that young creature, who
bushes even now ,at his hesitating caresses lis
tening eagerly for his footsteps as the night
steals on, and wishes that he would come home;
and when he enters at last, and with an affec-
tion as undying as his pulse, folds her to his bo-
som, can feel the very tide that goes flowing
through his heart, and gaze with him on her
graceful form as she moves about him for the
kind offices of attention; smoothing all his un-
quiet cares, and making him forget even himself,
in her young and unshadowing beauty.
| 60 forward years, and see her luxuriant hair
put soberly away from her brow, and her girl
ish graces ripened into dignity, and bright love-
illness chastened into affection. Her husband
looks on her with proud eye, and shows her
the same fervent love, and the delicate atten-
tons which first won her; and fair children are
grown up about them, and they 60 on full Of
honor and untroubled years, and are remember
ed when they die | say love to dream thus
when go to give the young bride joy. 1t is
the natural tendency and feeling touched by
loveliness, that fears nothing for itself; if ever
yield to other feelings, it is because the light
of the picture is changed. l am not fond of
dwelling upon such changes, and | will not mi
nutely now. | allude to it only because trust
that my simple page will be read by some of
the young and beautiful beings who move daily
across my path, and | would whisper to them,
as they glide by joyously and confidently, the
secret of an unclouded future.
The picture have drawn above is not pecu-
liar. 1t is colored like the fances Of the bride,
and many, oh many an hour will she sit, with
the rich jewels lying loose in her fingers, and
dream such dreams as these. She believes them
too, and she goes on for awhile undeceived.-
The evening is too long while they talk of plans
for happiness, and the quiet meal is still pleas
ant with delightful novelty of mutual reliance
and attention. There comes soon, however,
time when personal topics become bare and
wearsome, and slight attentions will not alone
kaap nm ha cncinl oyoifamapf Thora ora in
tervals of silence, and detected symptoms of
WEAKNESS, and the husband first, in his man.
hood, breaks in upon the hours they were to
spend together. Icannot follow it circumstan-
tally. There come long hours of unhappy
restlessness, and terrible misgivings of each
others worth and affection, till by.and-by they
can conceal their uneasiness no longer, and 60
out separately to seek relief, and lean upon the
hollow world for support, which one who was
their lover and friend could not give them!
Heed this, We who are winning by your inno-
cent beauty the affections of high minded and
thinking beings! Remember that he will give
up the brother of his heart with whom he has
had ever a fellowship Of mind-the society Of
his contemporary runners in the race of fame,
who have held him with stern companiOnship
and away from the arena Of his burning amb-
ton, to come and listen to the voice of the
charmer. 1t will bewder him at first, but it
will not long; and then think you that an idle
Punishment will chain the mind that has been
used for years to an equal communion 3
Think you he will give up for weak dallance,
the animating themes of men, and the search
into mysteries Of knowledge! Oh no, lady!
believe memo! Trust not your influence to
such light fetters! Credit not the old-fashion-
ed absurdity that women's is secondary lot
ministering to the necessities of her lord and
master! 1t is higher destiny | would award
you. If your Immortality is as complete and
your gift of mind as capable as his, l would
charge you to water the undying bud and give
it healthy culture, and open its beauty to the
sun, and then you may hope, that when your
life is bound with another, you will 60 on equal
ly, and with fellowship that shall pervade ev-
cry earthly INTEREST," WASHINGTON IRVING.
SoNG.-Oh, marry the man you love, girls, if
you can get him at all if he is as rich as Croe-
sus, or as poor as Job in his fall. Pray do not
for pelf, girls, twill bring your soul into thral,
but marry the man you love, girls, if his purse
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