Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1852-10-27

by a nobler, a worthier object.
Ten years before, she had been confded
to his care by a dying brother ; and faith
fully had he performed all the promises to
love and protect her which were exacted
from him in that solemn hour. But now,
as she stood upon the threshold of new
and dangerous life, blindly pressing to the
verge of the precipice which was concealed
from her view by the rich ferns, bright va
ried flowers, and golden sunbeaEs with
which fancy had invested it; but appearing
to his more discerning and experienced WIS.,
ion in all its hideousness, he must stand
still and let bitter experience teach too late
the lesson his love would have more ten
derby impaired. The will which had made
her heiress to an extensive fortune, contain
ed a clause granting her full liberty, after
! the age of eighteen, to marry whom she
- a # not first de-
veloped, those buds of earthly fancy which,
like many others of similar growth, though
dazzllngly beautiful and attractive in bloom,
bring forth as their perfected fruit a rank
and deadly poison. That individual expe-
rience is the best Of life's teachers has pas
sed into a proverb which no one even en-
deavors to %controvert. But, all! it is not
the higher province of wisdom, to learn
; true wholesome lessons from the different
phases of life being enacted around us, and
which are often the result of principles or
feeling concealed, without we regard them
with the s~trictest scrutiny, from our mortal
vision. Trusting girlhood would unhesi-
tatlngly dash the most gorgeous blossom
from her hand in IN instant, If assured by
:" a friend that poison lurked amid its gai-
? ly tinted petals. She knows that intoxi-
: cation and degradation turks beneath the
wine cups bubble wreathed brim there
Il fore is she satisfied with the fact without
9 probing the truth for herself. She would
&c &c willingly forego a qualification Of taste or
appetite, if. convinced through the expe-
? rlence OF others, it is unwholesome. And
= yet, in the one great event of her life, in
the stepping upon that untried platform
which Is either to elevate into a .purer and
clearer moral atmosphere-imbue her with
a more vivid and distinct conception of the
q sublime duties deyolving upon her as a "a.
II tional creature or which will, upon the
other hand, most certainly link her sou.
:, more strongly to the sensual and perverted
u aim which belong alone to earth how
Ie prone we find her to trust her own biased
he feelings and believe them sufficient, in vir
:. tue Of their sincerity, to conduct her to The
lis quiet harbor of temporal and eternal rest
* There is a beauty, ahalo of living light
about a malden's love, which has been sung
'Il and rhapsodized, and blended among al
III the bewildering meshes of poetry and 70
gu nance, until it is almost deemed the on
up great end, the unquestioned point Of he
life. And it is so often depicted as cling
l ing in its purity to the most loathsome Ok
ject vice ever set it's seal upon, gleamin
out more and more brightly as the scor
gar of good and noble men settles over his pros
poets in life-abiding all opposition, tn,
ma ming aside the most pointed shaft leyele
,aiy against him-and firmly breasting the whir
nat wind and the storm, that early womanhoo
pc ofttimes invests the most desperate chara
G. ters with a charm, an interior a~ttractio
he which she imagines the censorious wor.
or has failed to discover. That this is wron
OF all wrong, the most faithful friends of h
bright girlish hours and the s~incerest We
to wishers of her married life, will endeavor
IT. impress upon her. Colby may fall the
ned arguments upon her excited brain, and 81
ma may recount with the glowing heart al
SEN burning cheek of enthusiasm, the virtuo
conquests love has made, and how the mo
liant depraved, Obedient to its blossom wreath
letters, are led subdued and humbled to t
DER throne of virtue and of truth. But life
mo- not all made up Of heroic sacrifices, n
he will last always the high wrought thr
which fills her breast as she answers to
objections" [ love him, it is suffice
gen. for me-"
: in Believe me, dear reader, it is not SUI
in cient. And if you cannot state with t
you. fact, why you thus doat upon him, WI
noble manly virtues you first found to
and mire in his character, what affections, wi
.ght- firm abiding principles you have discov
u.s. ed upon which you may securely l.
rned when the dark days come and the howli
peal, storm and'surging waves of adversely
the sorrow are about you in all their streng
re [, and bleakness, you are not building VI
gard that sure foundation to which destruct
IN a may not come. 1t is at this point of
uXu- you really cease to be a child. For, b,
PANTS ever much YOU may share the esteem
ectly confidence Of parents, you have grown
,oun- so gradually beneath their eye, r~esortcC
C1C, lllCll ~ tOitlhGdIS 1OI ddfl CC III dill Y
the emergencies, that Iquestion if any real
d the the fact that the child they have so ]
loved and tenderly watched over, is ind
rage a WOMAN in heart and soul, fitted for
hmo- own true station in life, until her han
with demanded from them as a wife. And
blush der brothers, to their shame be it said
class often treat her as if she were still a Oh
edgar putting aside her interest in his pri'
| en- affairs, with the lordly remark-''G
cannot fifty understand such things
lrse." the best elements of her woman's ma
E ere remain dormant to them and only vag1
dark suspected by herself. Very much Of
[ on character then remains to develop itsel
: the meath the light from that hearths.
a him where she is more deeply than ever be
which acknowledged and treated as an equa
INFO AnJ sbould che whore hnr character