Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1869-02-26
From the
Old Loves.

LVtScs
The Frenchman who said that we always
return to our first loves, said one of the true
things of human nature and every mature
mind knows lite truth We do return TO our
old loves, and no after affection ever destroys
their place in our hearts.
There are abundant reasons for this going
back upon life-at least in thought and de
sires, if not in actual renewal. In YOUTH
when our sensations We're all new, and When
the mere fact of living was in Itself a JOY
everything was painted in with rose-color
everything was perfect, and each emotion m
its novelty was a veritable revelation oi the
divine We had not then become blunted
bv safety, chilled by corrected experience.
Ne firmly believed that what we felt, no one
else had ever felt before, OF would ever teel
arain with any thing ike our intensity we
firmly believed that all other peoples emo
tions were tame and cO,orless beside our own.
For youth is in itself perpetual recreation
Of the rrimeyal Adam, and each man lives
for time in a paradise Of his own making.
which no brother has ever shared. We and
our special Eve dwell in it alone, for lust 50
long a time as the feryor and inexperience
Of our first passion last. The pity is that it
lasts so short time. and that we wake. while
vet tso young to the consciousness that all this
exquisite delight Is only delusion, and that
=. the mind secs what it brings " in love as
well as in other things.
The love Of boy or girl Is unique. It is
never repeated in kind, though it may be
even surpassed in degree, for the love Of the
mature heart is more powerful than that of
the youthful but the freshness, the ecstatic
sense of certainty, the sublime belief in it.
self and its own immortality, in It's un
changeableness and future characteristic of
the first young love, have NJ echo even in the
strength and fidelity Of the mature. Besides,
it is 50 divinely blind and its blindness re
mains, though the eyes may be couched to see
everything else. Though our early charmer
was snub-nOscd and red-headed, and fully
half dozen years our elder, vet our memory
PLAYS magic tricks with reality, and we think
OF her to this day, as We believed her at the
time beautiful, golden haired, and sixteen.
If we had never seen her since that fatal hour
when we tore ourselves from her side in an
agony of despair at the cruel fate which sent
us to New Zealand or the West Indies. no
shock of personal experience has shattered
the sweet falsehood of our b5yish dreams,
and she will always he to us what she was
but II Nt Hdee eceh HCI d'teI "u4 ~ SV7 law
been couched, we stand aghast as at the dis
covery Of some Melusine in erser1ent state.
That plaIn-leatured, commonplace dowly Is
no more the peerless Dulcinea oil only ten
years ago. than she is her own grandmother.
Hencetorth she Is two persons the one. l.'-
ing in memory the other in actuaiity; and
OF the two the remembrance Us the more
real.
No one makes any allowance for the act
ion OF time IN another, or expects 70 hnd any
striking change, how long s5eyer The interval
/ between the last parting ana the present
meeting An increasing waistcoat and de-
creasing eheyelure IN ourselves tel US De-
] yond all question oi an AIRY youth forever
lied, ana mlddle-aged resIectaOilI'y ett'4eu
down heavily IN il7 S'ead yet we ION ~ y
ma our ooyisn llell SA'c'y ""11e we lJi'
h5r' anu ned,g n9 ~ - Fl -t1rI
"ngn We see 'li' ''.e - r'.
eIeu '.'I'' t1; ~ - .,'+ e -,
vi siHy i9i ~ -. -, 49,.
i'u9 ~, u e97e7 - va -. II -. 80,
" nO "o-iI
CON pds7l'iid'ely ioi ~ - -
udily - Jul c"H
we turn ouT liceS DacA "a4N' anu A''o" INA,
the poGIa oi our eAIIy lo'G II ue'''i oN5 N5
ten iathoms ueep 10y Tue alnl,sH'y NHnu oi
lime ana tnaV sie H"7 ieI. ON H'I ll'l'oiy
to keep US company. .l Du' IeI HeIo'S Il
immortal anu over liis Allnc HIS no AIM ol
power
Yet tnere are olu io'es lor "HCil, "Hen we
have got over tne nTst slocA '' ul'" lDln1-
ment al niiulhs Vli"V Ior,y T. n9' 's C"cH'!
was we knlI up 'he Ia'eleG eiSes Vi '.iie'
ana carry Ohe l'sy illo tle III
paler coiors ana ies' u'rld ll'.g'H' 1e'
WIN .oihei 'HIe"d 'l@' .l"Ae9 'I1 .N'
epochs one Our love remains tne same In
essentials, with dlneIence IN Iofihs, ten
Ger mellowhess Oh anee-loH has .aAe" cue
place oi the old lerVlo hefy passion Wilcn
once consumed as much as IL warmed ana
we seem 10 nave carried on iito lle PRESENT 'i7
whole accumulated s0rehglh oil the past
Certain phrases, looks, ana tones, IelhlAl us
so vlyidiy OF by-gone DAYS that al last we lose
all sharpness Of perceptIon' ana can scarcely
distinguish between them ana now, till tne
past becomes the present, blended and nsep-
arabic, and the mind cannot recognize any
break. We all know instances OF the hrst
love married alter the severance perhaps OF
quarter oil century with TWO hounshlng
families IN the meantime instances where
maturity has taken up the parable oil youth,
and lie has doubled paek upon itsel' ana
ended at It's starlhg pace. oueh reunions
are not necessarily either hapfN OF uiisuccess-
iul II all depends on the amount Oh liiehII
sympathy possible between the palr' alter uhe
warplng OF their diverse experiences Wheth-
er the memory OF their youtnIul fancy can ne
consolidated into living love or no. IL the
love have been very true and earnest, ana II
it have never failed, though 1t may have been
overlaid and forgotten, the chances are that
the marriage Will be happy nut say IL mas
been only fancy, without solid foundation
in the inner chambers OF the heart, ana then
the chances are the other way, and the look
out is dubious But even then. and at the
worst, the luckless experimenters have the
memory of the time when they thought they
loved. At the worst, they can lay the blame
~ time and distance and think: '' All, well,
if they had been married early in life, when
they wished it, they would have fitted better
than they do now they would have each
been more plastic, and by this time would
have been welded together as well as we'd
ded.' But an adverse late came IN between,
and hardened angles are the result.
There Is something neprXesslbly soothlnS
to our falling vanity, in being WIN those
VINO nave known us At our uesl- an ''1 :.
should have known MN twenty yeaIs az
Is a saiVe 10 many nan : ilul ul.iiicllioi VIZ
young anu - -
~ as an "iu 10y no' W. a -'s's.ie
~ O'''l iis ,'-.'.
go "a = ~. - - ~ 10, i i
still more % So Of women ,llI en- who denepd for So
cial rernte and infnence more an their ner-
sonal charms-whicb time rutblessIv handles
than on their intellectual ocouirements
which are of tougher material. and not 50
soon frayed and torn. In fact one Of the
best things about early marriages hangs on