Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1852-01-21

AAAA 1iiN Va L1EFA~ooH
and fatcs it is, courteous reader, we are to trace
through our story,
CHAPTER IL.
And oh, the atmosphere of homel how bright
1t floats around us when we sit together,
Under a bower of vine in summer weather,
Or round the hearth-stone on a winters night!
Pork Benjamin.
Home! how bIest is the thought of home!
Tho kiudliest feelings Of the soul are linked
around the hearth-stone, there are the written
pictures of love, of friendship, of cherished
memory all nesting around the tireside. When
torn from the home where the sweets of do
mestic peace have been tasted, how instructive
ly the heart sends II longing eye back to
memory's page-the page of. the past, and the
pictures of all the cherished hearts loves stand
there monuments of the holy feelings of the
soul. When torn from the homestead how
the busy thought runs back to the dear objects
behind and in memory counts over the bumps,
the wrinkles, the Irregularities, the smooth
places and the little granite hillocks upon the
old "Reminiscences familiar face, the busy thought
too, revels again among the braWny oaks, old
russell limbs, Tolls again on the grass plots and
plucks again the fragrant daisy buds; thus the
busy painter of memory pencils busily away
upon the fancy canvass until pictures, sketch
es and drawings stand out glowing and fresh.
And then the s~IeepIess dreamer forgets the
material clogs of the soul, and the spirit es-
sence-the ideal is clinging to the domestic al
tar. Eugene Melville was a spirit dreamer;
when called away from the wife he adorcd, the
pratling babe, the cherished tireside, called a.
way upon the duties of his profession, the
mind would turn to his dear home and reyel
there-revel upon the sweets of home.
We saw the happy scene of the marriage
day; the bride has left the home she loved IN
cliildhood's happy days and away from her mo-
theirs counsel she was the mistress OF a home,
a home of her own. Her study was to rem
der that home a peaceful retreat for the weary
husband, a home where a shelter lowered to
sEnpId them XII from the sr4ows Of strife and
bitter sorrow. When the young lawyer found
leisure to seek his home, and a quiet, and a re-
! lease from the busy tolls of life, he was met
there with the smiles of his welcoming wife
he found the comforts spread for him, the fire
glowed the brighter for his presence and he
felt his heart thrill with an unspoken pleasure,
when he gazed around his well furnished home
and a voice whispered, all my Own How hap
DIV was he! There WAS another tie OF love
a lovely boy, the little Herbert, was there, and
in his person the father beheld a mirrored i'm
age of himself. lIOw happy was the father
when the child would be riding upon his knee
yelling with childish glee! All this was q
source of deep pleasure to Eugene, and when
duty called him away from the idols of his
hearts worship, his heart would grow heavy
, and sad, and it's whispered minstrelsy were
. notes of sorrow-of deep, deepregret; but the
: stern mandates of duty bid him away, away
from all this-aH his-the hearts worshipeC
q ones, and from the harvest fields of the world
+ Gull the sheaf-the garnered grains of wealth
I for his family.
A rich field was spread before him to gleal
in prosperity emptied her teeming horn o
plenty in his path, and the name of Eugen'
v Melville was beginning to be sounded abroad
y by the pealing blast of tame's clarion as one o
the strong champions of the bar wealth toe
a was beginning to gather around him, and HI
name was accounted great and rich Thou
q sands hung upon his impassioned eIoquence
the bar when he plead the widows cause
thousands were swayed and driven by his burn
10 ing pathos when he stretched his arm above tn
" helpless head, and raised his voice for the OF
phan thousands felt a tlngling thrill of horrc
, creep upon them when he painted as with tn
brush Of scathing flame, the hideous deform
tv of the Williams blackened heart,-his el'
n QucICG WUS dliIIOSt O@ApSLA4ALAion 1AN 1850
ocean of faces that We're ever turned to hi
# when speaking, he swayed at will at one M
If ment he would rive them in fierce pillows, tel
40 and tempest-test by the wild storm of his heI
r. inyeetive, and then at will, he could chain Il
bent ear to the whispered accents OF his +
nc iian music-the anthem of suasiun and pity.
ho He was the pride of his Ntriends and his p
ed rents, and the worshiped IDOL of his wife. 81
ri looked upon him us her protector, and felt I
ioiced in being the honored wife of one
ed great, so good as Eugene Melville. And
as too, felt proud in being blest in so good, SO
Ell tectlonate a wife, Yet she felt unworthy 10 DC
10. partner with him, in the Wreaths of fame
was fast winning it was all too rich to deck h
of brow.
lid 'How can realize the truth, she Wou
oil whisper to herself. of being the wife of one
dis truly great and noble. How can | offer a f
her recompense for the love of that one exalt
We: soul. How can | but worship that being
pps round whose heart my very soul is twined
the How can | but adore the lofty hcroism of tt
sic cherished heart! Isit, 0 Father.-is it sin
led 10 worship him thus Then teach me, tain
the to avoid it-teach the heart, the soul. o Faith
CHI teach 1t the path OF duty. AND yet Is IL not
,er- possible to divert the heart from this, its Oh
evil polar star! Can It be turned away from
the worshiped shrine Mono, no It bows tn
the and oilers the rich Increase OF tue hearts n
censor to its idol. He calls me his own Eli
E to o how enchanting this! Yes, | am wholly
and and veto yet, how unworthy-Unecorthy.
igh- Thus ran The spirit communion Of The v
aye, and she often Iold him how all unwor
Zen she deemed herself 10 be called 'he wife OF