Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1854-08-31
Gge Storp GtIItr.
From Arthurs Home Gazette.
VENUS REGENERATRIX.
BY AUGUSTIN.
VENUS.

One night, just as his clock noted twelve,
Dudley Stuart entered his office. 1t was
December night-very cold, gusty, cheerIess.
There was good fire in the CRATE, however,
and in few moments the young lawyer was
seated in his armchair before it, foot on
either side Of the fireplace, slippered in slip
Pers of the choicest pattern, comfortable
gown on his person, segar in his mouth,
waiter of cakes, custards and wine on the ta-
BILE behind him, which his sister had left there
on awaiting his return. The room was very
comfortable by reason of thick carpet, heavy
curtains and papered walls. A well-filed
law library on one side gave it legal look,
which was greatly increased by grim bust
of Chief Justice Marshall upon the mantel.
Eleven vases of bouquets, rifed from eleven
young ladies at a party the night before,
stood, however, on the same mantel, together
with halfemptied box of segars, packet of
delicately backed notes, and eighteen sticks
of sealing-wax of every possible color. Then
the picture of Miss Ellsler, balanced on the
extreme point of her slipper, beside another,
representing one of the love scenes of Burns
poems, by no means was calculated TO inn
press any farmer client with the erudition of
the lawyer owning and displaying them.
Look at the man as he sits there He is
well-looking- face-good head-twenty
six years DID, The fact of his case is exact
ly this. He is a lawyer of years standing
next month-for last January he first opened
his trim Office in the village in which his
fathers family had resided for years. He is
amiable, generous, dotted on by his widowed
mother, his three brothers, and his very plump
and joyous sister Cally. He has just enough
means to make it necessary he should work to
sustain hmself-not enough, most uniortu-
lately, to produce the excellent feeling Of
work or starve! During the last year he has
just done this. He has averaged writing two
pages Of law matter, and visiting the same
evening two young ladies to refresh himself
therefor, each day. Each day has he aver
aged half chapter of law reading and twen-
ty chapters of novel reading. He has ridden
the circuit-but it was a mere sort of picnic
excursion. He has good, capacious head
between his ears-but it is crammed with a
perfect mixture. Law and sonnets, noble as
piratlons and dandy breads, desire for wealth
and desire for ease, craving for law distinc-
tion and craving for literary distinction, full
resolution to succeed hereafter and full dis
position to enjoy now-all these things fill his
head-neutralizing each other. He stands
like Paris on Ida, holding hand TO Venus on
one side, but hand also to Minerva on the
other-rresolute, stationary, good for moth
ing. Unless something smites the man from
his abominable equilibrium, he is dandy,
loafer, genteel nincompoop and noodle, for
ever 1t may do while he is twenty six. 1t
will not do when he is thirty. If he is then
the same joking, generous, idle, purposeless,
good fellow, he will be SO through all time
despised by all true men more than they do
the energetic villain, for he, at least, has
purpose, and works hard, even if it is at cOun-
terfeiting or with crowbar at the windows
of bank. Unless some event or other seizes
the man, collars him, shakes his nonsense out
of him, wheels him to the right about, and
sends him with quickened step and single
purpose upon some one plain path, why he
will dawdle smiling along to his grave-as
really rotting and useless to himself and men
as if he were already in it, screwed down,
turned to dust.
Something has hit the man! You can see
it as he sits there by the fire. You can see it
in the settled gravity Of his face. He smokes,
but it is only by instructive habit he is think
ing.
COL Edward Lennon is an old, grey-head-
ed, ,thorough-going, established lawyer, living
in the same village with our friend. The old
gentleman has three children--and one of
those children is daughter Upon that
daughter-Miss Eve Lennor-the colonel has
bestowed all the education money can afford.
Upon the same Eve, Mrs. Lennon has be-
slowed all the domestic training most intel
ligent and loving mother can bestow. have
seen and known and loved Eve ever since she
was baby in bibs. l have known her so
well-I esteem her so much that [ can no
more describe her than can my own wife
next to whom do love this same Eve.
could describe county. detest to describe
lady. But | wish you too, to know and
love her as well as myself. Eve has brown
eyes-but cannot describe the world of sweet
light and sweeter shade within them. Eve
has an oval face, and dark hair, and small fig
ure-lt is not the least use | cannot linn
her sweet self upon this page as | wish to
therefore, will not at all. Take nv solemn
word for it-oh my reader-she is as sweet,
as amiable, as intelligent girl of eighteen as
is ever met with since angels ceased to gather
flowers on this sinful earth. Yet Eve has de-
fects, of course. 1 do not exactly know what
they are, however. She sings and plays-yet
she is not prima donna. She draws and
paints-yet she is not genius. She is not
an angel. She is genuine woman as near
as my idea of her namesake as any lady-my
wife excepted know of. This Eve, Dud-
ley wished to become an Adam to. He be-
gan falling in love with her two years ago.