The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-02-03
No. 631.

pour httie cnlluren VINO stand IN such pressing
need OF mothers care, the heather who are
pershlng for lack of knowledge, why then. /
say, if these really are her motives, she is
wrong-just as truly, though not perhaps as
greatly, wrong as she who follows the glitter
OF gold. Let her take lesson from Jane Eyre
and ST. John, since she has failed to learn it
from her Bible. If the claims of the heather
urge her so irresistibly, let her go to them un-
trammelled. The cause of God is not so despe-
rate that it needs to be propped up by a false
hood.
Nor do believe in marrying because, as /
have frequently heard alleged, a woman's nature
is such that she " must love somebody" In the
first place, the implied fact is a convenient lit.
tie fiction. There is no sort of necessity for
your loving somebody 1t may be very
! pleasant to doso; !. may be very distressing
not to do so; but it is not Immediately fatal
Even if it were, never mind. Remember Pom
pegs sublime words, 1t is necessary for me to
go; 1t is not necessary for me 10 live" Death
comes to all, and the world does not need your
bodily presence so much as it needs your moral
heroism. If you die rather than live falsely, YOU
will enrich 1t by one great example. Moreover,
granting that you must love somebody does
1t inevitably follow that you "must love "
grown man, III possession Of respectable
yearly income? Look abroad at the orphans,
thousands upon thousands, fatherless, mother
less, to whom your love would be as the dew of
Hermon. Chrlsts little ones are all around
you--the ignorant, the uncared-for, the outcast.
Lavish on them your irrepressible affection.
The sunshine of love might melt the ice in
which their better nature is encrusted, and
warm into healthy, vigorous growth the wasting
germ OF many virtue. The idea, girls the
idea of sacrificing your whole life to a $3.50
sort of person, for the sake of having " some
body TO love" in world so full of children that
the most excruciating hand-organ will in two
minutes block up the sidewalk in any portion of
any city with admiring throngs OF white headed
urchins!
To marry for home or for happiness is little
better. A home purchased by the sale of your
self is dear bargain, and happiness is the most
uncertain shadow you can pursue. 1t is Incl
dental. 1t comes upon us unexpectedly but
if we set out determinatey and definitely in pur-
suit of it, it generally leads us into Dogs and
| quagmires, and leaves US there.
Ii, instead OF promising TO love and honor in
the future, custom enjoined a woman, ON her
marriage day, solemnly to aver that she did at
that moment love and honor, | verify believe
there would be fewer mock unions | think ii
would be safer to let the future build itself
taking care to secure in the present a firm found
alton, than to take the foundation for granted
and proceed prematurely to the superstructure
Many women, conscientious, but vague, unac-
customed to make distinctions to know clearly
the difference between one thing and another
after long hesitating and vacillating, do finally
zigzag their way to church, and make the most
tremendous promises, with misty kind of be.
lief that they shall be able to keep them when
the indefinitely distant trial comas-who, if the
plain question were put 10 them point-blank
"Do you now love and honor this man 2" could
not find it in their hearts, and therefore not in
their consciences to say" Yes and would
perhaps OF SIN, Yet, have heard Christian
woman seriously advise her young friend to ac
cept marriage proposal because--Shc "sco,lld
not be likely to do better, 4 Superior acomda
must not expect 10 marry her superior" ! have
known a gentleman write, . advise YOU,
If an intelligent, truely Christian man, who re-
ally loves you, wants YOU to marry him, to do
So" And a highly moral and religious com
munity does not cease to warn contumacious
maidens of the danger of "going through the
woods and picking up crooked stick at last"
There certainly aye occasions on which, if
yoE cannot do as you would, it is quite proper
to do as you can. Nothing can equal good
sweet potato, yet you would be very foolish to
throw away mashed Irish ones, because the frost
has destroyed the more saccharine tpaer.,sl In
default of mashed lrisk. ,ussted will have no
mean hayog. it.hc potato crop fails, Boston
| brown bread fresh from the oven, will enable
you to bear the loss with philosophical resigna-
ton, and even boiled rice, the most unpretend.
ing of all edibles, is better than starvation
But a husband is not a potato, and if you
select him on the same principle, be not sur
| prised If you find him extremely indigestibe.
| - as The dove, 10 far Palmyra flying
| From where her native founs of Anuoeh beam,
| Weary, exhausted, longing, pant ng, signing.
| Lights sadly 81 the deserts bitter
Perfectly right in the dove.)
$50 many soul, DER lifs's I,esy 6esest faring-
Loves pure, psaseHia spsGg unbound, urquafed-
| Sufe;9, rseO, is lL-n, thirsty and ce-paIIng
| u what Il would descends, a I'd sips the nearest
| drsughb"
and is refreshed and strengthened, Just as the
shipwrecked sailor is refreshed by the mcck;up
salt sea-water, which he bears u frenzy to his
fever-parched lips
Da you now, seeing that have dealt chiefly
| in negatives, ask me what shall be the token
My dear child, how can tell? By just as
many girls hearts as are thgobbing this wide
world over, by just SO many ways will love en-
ter in and take possession. Keep your eye sin.
| gle and your heart pure and You will not fail
to recognise the heavenly visltant. The mole
cue OF oxygen roams lonely through the vast
universe, yearning for its mate, and finding no
| rest till of a sudden it meets the molecule of
hydrogen in a quiet nook, when 10 rush, an
embrace, and there is no more either oxygen CT
hydrogen, but diamond drop Of dew aparkling
on the white bosom Of tbs lily. So, suppose
will it be vita Yoa, when you meet your destiny.
A fash and a fzzle, and it is all over with you,
and all over you! Your heart is gone-your
power is gone-power over your blood, that
plays mad pranks in your cheeks--oyer your
thoughts, that hover continually about one spot
over your memories, that wake to music only
I -.olf
more, to be held in solution by stronger nature
than your own-~.unless your love comes upon
you thus, like strong man armed, do not be-
lieye in it. If you in cold blood give up your
name, your independence, your individuality for
a consideration whatever that consideration BE,
you will be wife only in name. Priestly blessing
cannot sanctify unhOly contract. If you have
parted with your birthright what matter wheth-
err it was for mess of pottage on q stalled OK ?
know, therefore, Of no reason why a woman
should marry, except because she cannot help
it-because the spirit of life which dwelleth
in the most secret chambers of the soul, all
trembling, speaks these words; Behold god
more powerful than L. >
Ifyour love raises and exalts you, if it helps
! you or your heayenward way, if it brings you
nearer to God, if it strengthens you to brave
| endurance stimulates you to heroic action, and
makes all greatness posshle--if, in one word
it possesses itself Of you, aud sweeps you up and
out from the finite to the infinite, as a wave
bears seward the strong swimmer, powerless-
you are SAFE
! If anything less than this satisfies YOU, if you
content yourself with feeble, sickly sentiment,
that willis in the sun and breaks in the storm,
your soul will surely suffer. An inferior nature
may waken feeling enough to blind you for a
little while. The cares and pleasures Of a busy