The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-03-28
LONG ENGAGEMENTS.
BY ANNA CORA RITcHIE.

of the wedding ring.
But the maiden who reflects will re-
spond with no hasty "amen" to that
fond PRAYER. Reflects! does not King
Oberon still walk the earth, performing
as fantastic and amazing feats with his
magical flowers as in the days of Bully
Bottom2 And did woman ever reflect
after the fairy monarch had stolen
upon her slumbers and pressed the
juice of his purple blossom upon her
folded lids? The portals of her heart
open with her eyes when the latter
have once received that mystic flowers
touch, and the eyes take in and the
hea TT enthrones the being first looked
| upon. .-r.r.HI
Let him wear what shape he may, he
| is transformed and gloritied to her
vision by Loves glamor. That mo-
nlent Reason is unceremoniouslyt thrust
thrust out of doors. In vain she clam
orS to be heard, and warns the infatua-
ted fair one against percipitancy-in
vain she reminds her that her haPpi-
ness is more easily perilled than mans
-thut her susceptibilitieS are keener-
that her sufferings will be greater-thnt
her risks are Il thousand fold more nu-
merous. Love fashions FOOLS cap out
of his madrigals to bind it upon Rea-
sons brow, and from that hour she
passes for Folly.
: Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World"
bhhb A4AAAAA heAo
been compared to game of skill for
life: IL is generous, then, in both parties
to declare that they are sharpers in the
beginning. In England, am told,
both sides use every art to conceal their
defects from each other before marriage,
and the rest of their lives may be re-
garded as doing penance for their dis
stimulation"
Is this n malicious Islander or rude
ly expressed truth? Are not lovers, all
the world over, Zealously engaged in
cheating each other? Does not the very
state ofmental eXaltation, produced by
an absorbing affection, give birth to an
unprecedented deception? Nay, has
not love, in the dawn of its existence,
identifying influence upon the whole
constitution of mans soul? Are not
commonplace minds elevated and rem
dered poetic by its refining power?-
What, then, must be its effect upon
spirits of finer mould?
The period of an open, prosperous
betrothal is the blossOming season of
! life. The sun of pure passion calls
forth the fairest flowers upon every
tree, and the air is filled with the melO-
dy of birds caroling joyful promises
from the branches. In the sunshine of
bright illusions-the eXhilirating at
mosphere of alternate hopes and fears
the heart CLOVIS, and swells, and takes
in all creation with unwonted tender
ness; the dullest prospects are tinged
with orient hueS; the simplest incidents
communicate thrill of joy; nature puts
on her gala dress to welcome the enam-
ored pair wherever they wander, and
shakes down odorous tributes upon
their heads from every bough.
And it is well. It is better for the
soul, even when love is misplaced, to
give a boundless devotion than to en-
tertain n tame affection for an object
The man of her choice is always
hero to a woman who loves heartily,
and her fond fancy invests him with an
abundance of captivating attributes,
which possibly have not the most shad-
owy existence out of her imagination.
On the other hand, Shakespeare tells us
that to men "women are angels WOO
ing" But OF the bitter disenchant-
ment if in the glare of Hymen's torch
the ideal charms vanish away, the man
tie of glory falls from the hero's Shout
ders-and the CANCEL, at whose shrine
the lover devoutly worshipped, stands
before him most terrestrial being full
of failings, wants, caprices, inconsist-
enCes?
Unconsciously his eyes must forget
"The gentle ray
They wore in courtship'ss day"
his voice must lose
"The tones that shed
A tenderness rouud all they said"
the roses of her bridal chaplet must
wither, and leave a martyrs crown of
thorns upon the brow they encircled.
The probation of a long engagement
is the sureSt talisman against this rude
dissolying of the spell that surrounds
lovers. During the interval their vari-
Gus phrases of character are revealed
by Unforeseen chances-by LIES ineyi-
table mutations; and, being discovered
at this blissful period when no life
shackle makes endurance compulsory
even grave faults and temper-trytng
peculiarities are readily tolerated and
excused. Mental angularities are worn
away and rounded off to "A graceful
smoothness, by the attritiOn of constant
association. Their souls become at
tuned to the same key. The indispen-
sable lesson of mutual forbearance is
conned betimes.
Love has leisure allowed him to build
his temple upon the rock of perfect
trust, which no storm can shake. The
flashing flames of enthusiasm, by which
its shrine was illumined at consecra-
ton, is gradually replaced by that
steady, holy light which fiercest gales
cannot extinguish. Good spirits have
whispered to the wife elect that she will
need Martha's executive hands and
Mary's approaching soul to keep those
affairs swept and garnished, and have
murmured in her partners ear that he
must reign within those walls with Sol