Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-08-15
Ladies' Department,
For the Spirit of the Age.
To the Social Circle.

Will you not, dear kind Circle, permit
one who tho o stranger has with no little
interest read and re-read your communica-
tons in the good Spirit, TO offer for one
little obscure niche within the influence of
a group so lovely, so interesting as yours
MAY | not sometimes offer you some little
scrap, by way Of contrast with yours of such
beauty and interest?
Will you not Matte, Inez, Mollie, Min
ME, Lora and all, grant Reub. the pleasure
of sometimes interchanging thoughts with
your =,
IT'S said, dear Circle, that in Oriental
wales there blooms an humble little flower,
called in the sweet symbolic language Of
the Eastern tongue, the Flower Of I'm
conscious Merit. "a is not beautiful to
look upon, nor would it attract the gaze
Of unobservant eyes, and hence is not often
seen amid the f~avorites of the bright par
tcrre but as IL aware Of its unvalued
worth, it blooms, and dies beneath the
shade Of faircr, brighter, but less modest
aowers-itSelf uusought, unseen, and hence
unloved.
But now, p~erchance, the too impartial
Storm King. with relentless brastd, doth
rudely turn aside each peudarTe bonEh, uud
with its blighting power aings from their
-prcsumptuous thrones the r~eigning beauties
Of the floral realm, whose mental Office
like the attractiye y~anities of life, is only to
conceal superior merit and expose to sensu
al eyes their gilded wares for purest gold
But look once more upon this sighted
flower, and sec how heavens pure sunlight
has now first kissed its pale and SicklJ
leayes, and wcoed the reviying zephyrs o
the morning to breathe on its enfeebleC
form, until its faded petals, infused will
vigorous life, assumes the brightest hue
Of brightest flowers, and sheds upon thu
passing breeze it modest tribute of grateful
fragrance and thus perennial blooming
ever lives a beauteous semblance, Of th,
unpretonding virtues of woman's gentl
heart
And now, dear Circle, it's scarcely need
full for me to show how the little flower Q
Unconscious Merit is emblematical Of VIC
mans heart, and woman's life.
This world, you know, has been and Wi
l fear ever be too prone to look upon tn
outward adorning of the person, rattle
than the. inward adjoining of the heart
and most of your gentle sex, are too al
to suppose that to dance, to sing, to pla.
to coquette and to dress in all the gay CO
ors of the ~'reigning beauties of the for
realm Gnstead of wearing gracefully Il
modest robe of unconscious merit is IL
Highest attainment Of woman's existenc
Hence, We ore accustomed to see the lit
charms of life-the utile and the good,
substituted by the ~trappings Of fashio
and the misealled accomplishments of so
city. $500.
Still, while We do not always see t
merit for which we seek, we feel quite CO
fdept that it does exist, yes, not only exis
but it finds congenial soil in woman's g
tie heart, and it is only because the larg
(mind do not say the better number
our s~cx-appreciate and seek after
beautiful instead Of the useful, for the 90
instead Of the good, and because the gav
s~unHowers and bright roses, and fairy I'LL
like those which concealed our little orier
flower, eclipse the modest violet, the defiC
snow drop, and the pure lilly of the vail
that they are so rarely seen. But W
the Storm King of reality flor you are
Greenland now shall cast his shade
cloud over the blooming garden of y
young hearts, it is only the grand,
stately and useless weeds and flowers wi
must bow before the gale. While
little v%iolets, and snow drops and lille
the valley, all too lovely, too humble t
touched, will expand, and bloom,
flourish, to bloss the heart with the 81
fragrance. Of their modest virtues.
Petersburg, July 1855. REUI