The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1855-04-12
THE WIFE.
There's mary shaft at random sent,
Finds mark the archer never meant;
There's many word at random spoken
al. b., bro 1

Finds mark the archer never meant;
There's many word at random spoken,
May sooth or wound heart that's broken,
Many is the jest the young man is SUBJ
ject to who does "wooing 60, and some
times even does he speak lightly of the
riviting process Of the heart which is to
make him whole but it is better to tri-
fe with the lightning, or magazine of
powder, than to WOO termagant or a
faithless one.
To be mistaken in the one we choose,
once for all. to 60 with us in the journey
of life-to take to the heart fair one,
and find we have we'd a charmer that
sought US as pray-is to be regarded as
the direst calamity that can befall hu-
man being.
Human nature is like a landscape, pleas
ant to look upon only in a certain light !;
and married life is like picture fair and
beautiful, but with an ugly, unpainted
back, that is sometimes turned to view
The world is not all made up of love,
and happiness; neither is married life all
4 honeymoon, and it is better to be true
10 nature, like painting picture, than to
depart too much from it for the sake Of
effect.
The wife in the truest sense is but
part oS man. Each separate, is but a
fragment of existence between which there
is a strong affinity, and when united, they
form whole. In chemistry we often see
the combination of ultimate elements for
ming a body of great strength; but let
adverse influences be brought to bear, and
it crumbles into dust. The tree springs
up from the union of individual particles;
but strike blow atits heart and it with
ers, and the winds strip it up, and it tot
ters and falls, to moulder again into earth.
So too, if, when the ultimate elements of
human existence have been once united
the affinity between them becomes weak
cned, and they repcl each other, and sep
arate then like the tree, they may en-
dure for Awhile the blast, but sooner or
later, the heart W II die out, hope will
/ find nutriment and vanish; and desolation
will cease to mark the spot where they
/ once Xisted
wedlock ever enjoy the full measure of
happiness that is meted out for their ac-
ceptance. The affections spring up in good
soil but they are not properly cultivated
where the soil is deepest, tares grow most
speedily. The young wife is tender
plant, and needs the fostering care of ev-
cry day devotion. This is at her COM
mand. No one is more sure of their re-
ward, than the truly affectionate wife,
/ The husband cannot always be the lover
by profession-hc may at heart-but he
has something else TO do. How many
young wife mistakes this for Indifference,
and thus opens her heart to the decoying
words of the artful tongue, and finally
meditates-thoughtless of the consequent
ccs-that if, perhaps, she had chosen diff
ferently, it would have been better. When
one such thought as this entered the
heart love, hope and happiness fee, and
distrust, Indifference, or jealousy take their
places the genial glow of affections
fame, is quencbed, and the freside grows
cold and checrless. It is hard to re-kin
die the fire that has once gone out upon
the hearthstone Of afection-the fame
that is fed only by fuel from loving hearts
when these have grown cold and for
bidding. Better, indeed, would it have
been that they had never met. Who doees
not say that the preventive is easier
than the cure % But who shall point it
out? 1t is the work alone of the heart
and the two hearts concerned must work
out, unadcd, the problem of happiness or
mizery. The seeds of sorrow may be
sown with a light heart, but the harvest
must be rcaped in bitter tears.
Show me the wife that is blind to her
husbands faults and | will show you a
happy woman; and man who has less
to answer for, than were even the truth
believed.
/ If Ruth could say to her husbands
mother: "Wither thou goest | will 60 ;
and where thou lodgest | will .lod dge-thy
people shall be my people, and thy God
my God where thou diest, will die, and
there will be buried the Lord do SO to
to NE, and more also, II aught but death
part thee and me" how much more should
the young wife cleavc unto her husband,
and abide by his fortunes. Such should
be the declaration upon the altar, where
the twain are made of one flesh. In love,
hope, happiness and sorrow, alike, they
should be as one heart, andfpride and
/ ambition should never enter the mind, on
/ ly in, and for each other
And now, dear reader, have laid be-
fore you for the most part, the unpaintcd
side Of the picture, but let it not thus be
presented in bis own dwelling, but keep
before you always that which is beautiful
above all things here below Hone Joar-
nal.
In Italy you will see man breaking
up bis land with two cows, and the root
= I.oo for n y,1ouoh while hp iS dressed