Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-11-10
THEEyENINGBEF MARRIAGE.

AhE EN ENlNG BEFORE MARR1AGE.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF zscHoKKE.
eve shall certainly be very happy to.
!gSther,, said Louise to her Aunt on the
evening before her marriage, and her
cheeks glowed with deeper red, and her
eyes shone with delight. When bride
says acs, it may easily be guessed whom
of all persons in the world she mean,
thereby.
81 do not doubt it, dear Louise" repli-
ed her Aunt, see only that you continue
happy together"
"Oh, who can doubt that we shall con-
tinue so! know myself L have faults,
indeed, but my love for him will correct
them. And SO long as VIC love each 9th
or, we cannot be unhappy. Our love will
never grow old"
" Alasp' sighed her aunt, ''thou dost
speak like = maiden of nineteen, on the
day before her marriage, in the intoxica-
ton of wishes fulfilled of fair hopes and
happy omens. Dear child. remember
this-eosn the heart in time groars cold.-
Days will come when the magic of the
senses shall fade. And when this en-
chantmsnt has fed, then it first becomes
evident whether we are truly worthy OF
love. When custom has made familiar
the charms that are most attractive, when
youthful freshness has died away, and
with 1t the brightness of domestic life,
more and more shadows have mingled
then, Louise and not till then can the wife
say of the husband, He is worthy of
love- then, first the husband says of the
wife, She blooms in imperishable beauty.
But, truly, on the day before marriage,
such assertions sound !aughable to me-"
u understand you, dear aunt. You
would say that our mutual virtues alone
can in later years give us worth for each
other. But is not he to whom [ am to
belong-for of myself | can boast moth
ing but the best InteRtions-is he not the
WOrthiest and nobleEt of all the Young
men of the city Blooms not in his soul,
every virtue that tends to make life hap
Py?"
my child" replied her aunt, 81 grant
it. Virtues bloom in thee as we'll as in
him l can say this to thee without fat
terry. But dear heart, they bloom only
and are not yet ripened beneath tic suns
heat and the shower. No blossoms de.
ceive the expectations more than these
We can never tell in what soil they have
taken root. Who knows the concealed
depths of ths heart ?''
All, dear aunt, you really frighten
me-"
$50 much the better, Louise. Such
fear Is right, such fear is as it should be
on tho evening before marriage. l love
thee tsnderly, and will, therefore declare
all my thoughts on this subject without
disguise. 1 am not aa yet an old aunt
AT seven and twenty years, one still look.
forward into life with pleasure, the worlc
still presents a bright side to US. l have
an excellent husband. l am happy
Therefore l have the right to speak thu:
to thee, and to call thy attention to Sc
cret which perhaps, thou dost not ye
know, one which is not often spoken O
to young and pretty maiden. one, in
deed, which does not greatly occupy tn,
thoughts of young man, and still is o
the utmost Importance in every household
a secret from which springs lasting low
and unuttsrIbls happiness"
Louise seized the hand of her aunt il
both of hers. 'tDear aunt, you know
believe you in everything. You mean
that enduring happiness and lasting low
are not insured to uI by accidental quail
ties, by fleeting charms, but only by thos'
virtues of the mind which we bring t
each other. These are the best dowry
which We can possess; these charms nsre
become old.'
"As it happens, Louise, the virtues al
SO, like the beauties of the body, cal
grow old, and become rspulsive and hate
full with age"
"Hou, dearest aunt what is it yol
say? Name to me virtue which cal
become hateful with years"
''Whsn they have become so, we ne
longer call them virtues, as a beautiful
maiden can no longer be called beautiful
when time has changed her to an old anc
wrinkled woman
." But aunt, the virtues are nothing
earthly"
"Psrhaps."
Chow can gentleness and mildness ev
er become hateful %
$50 soon a. they degenerate into insipi
incidence and listlessness."
"And manly courage ,"
Becomes impsrious rudsness.
!"And modest diffidencs ?"
Turns to fawning humility"
"And noble pride ?'
''To vulgar haughtiness."
"And readiness to oblige?" ..
Becomes habit of too ready friend
ship and servility."
Dear Aunt you make me almost an
CRY. Ny future husband can never de
generate thus. He has one virtue whic
will preserve him as he is forever.