The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1866-06-13
MISCELLANY.
SEED-SOWING.

Mr.. Linklctter perceived in Amclia-a
dawning lady Of sixteen-a growing in
tercst when questions of love and matri-
mony were under discussion. Mr.. Link
letter had loved and lost. Not loved and
lost in the beautiful way that leaves a
sweet and tender pain behind, but loved
and lost in bitterly practical and unove-
| ly way. | should put it palmer if | said
that, life being viewed us a vast gambling
! table and matrimony lottery, hc had
staked his lovc-and lost, not won. lie
had suffered, in word, profoundly; and
his experience he knew to be worth more
than untold gold, if its lessons would but
be received by the young and forward
looking. Little Amelia was one such.
Mr.. Linklettcr was thrown frequently into
her society, and, wishing to SOW good
seed in her heart, he had striven to win her
esteem by listening with every indication
of interest to her calow prattlc about
bcaux and that sort Of thing. SO he
found his opportunity TO speak words Of
warning and wisdom to Amelia.
One day, discovering that she listened
10 him with high apparent interest, he
suffered himself to talk at such length us
! this:
"lou think you love, do You, Amelia ?
Perhaps you do. | cant tell. But let
me whisper this secret TO you; girls of
your age do not often love profoundly,
nor judge wisely concerning their own
hearts. How should little lass whose
mind is fundamentally in the forma-
ton state stil-bc able TO tell the differ
cncc between girlish fancy, which time
will wear away, and that true love which
sinks deep into the soul, and knows 10
change nor death till the grave covers
the heart in which it dwclt 1t would
not be fair to expect that Of her. Love
is Il thing. that can not die. 1t is nom
sense for any one to say that a person,
having once loved, ceases to love, that
love changes, that it cools or dcadcns,
that the lover becomes tired of his sweet
heart. Impossible. To love once is TO
love forever"
"l'his kind IF love, Amelia, does not
often take up its dwelling place in the
heart of Il girl of sixteen or boy Of
eighteen. Not bnt that it may, and can,
but that it hardly ever does. When it
does there is something rarely exceptional
about it. II | were to say what thought
was the trucst age at which the impulses
Of the heart may be relied ON as safe
index, | should place it somewhere beyond
the aye OF twenty-five, for either sen
For men, perhaps later Mems minds
usually do not mature in the direction of
the emotions SO early as womcn'S do.
When man or woman seriously falls in
love (as folks say at the age Of twenty
six or seven, or upward, it is pretty sure
to be true passion, which can not be
destroyed. If it is false one it will pass
away speedily. But to really love at
that age, and to marry, is to be happy"
Feeling himself getting into deep wat
ers, Mr.. Linklcltcr paused,
care people always happy who marry
when they are twenty-six or seven ~
asked Amelia with charming simplicity.
"Therc " said Mr. Linklettcr, 81
wanted just such a question, Amelia, to
help me out No; don't let any such
absurdity as that get before your eyes,
and blind them TO the truth We are
talking"
Mr.. Linkleiter perhaps forgot that lie
was himself doing all the talking.
1--WE are talking, you must bear in
mind, about lore. Now the world is full
Of people who don't marry for love, and
don't pretend TO- They marry for wealth,
Or for convenience, or for pride; some
marry for hate. That these marriages
are unhappy is to be expected, and is no
more than fair. But when people marry,
as they suppose, for lore, they certainly
ought to be happy. Now here's the
thing in nutshell. If it is true love they
lrW be happy-they must be (and pos
iliycly assert that Il true and noble love
can never die) AT eighteen they are
incapable of Judging in this matter at
say twenty-siX or seven they are capable,
ii ever they are. So if a girl of sixteen
thinks she loves, there is no certainty that
she does love-she is terribly liable to be
mistaken about it. But if woman Of
twenty-five thinks she loves, 1t is pretty
certain to be so, | have known fifty
cases of marriages for love $50 supposedly
at eighteen, and they all proved il-assort-
cd and miserable unions. Now the sum
and result of this sermon, Amelia" Mr..
Linklctter smiled, sis this-that marriages
contracted between children are woeiully
in danger of proving unhappy. You are
young the opposite sex is peculiarly
attractive 10 you; your heart feels the
longing to love, and reaching out its ten
drills, as the poets say, for an object to
cling TO, Is quite as likely to cling to the
wrong object as TO the right one When
you stop TO think that among every hum
dred young men you see it is barrel ! pos
sble that one exists in whom your heart
will find that perfect, restful love, that
wall bear you through life, isn't there a
grave danger that you, in your detcrmin-
alton to love somebody, will love-or seem
to love-the wrong one? Now fancy
tor an instant that you are married to
one OF these youths at the age of seven
teeni few years-nay, a few months
may show you that your love does not
satisfy in time it dies; YOU may find