The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-08-21
chose upon eaIshs 1sauinevere to elect

chose upon earth ? IsGuinevere to elect
80 stand by Arthur " 'Lauceiot q, Lanca-
hot. we presume, is purified too, ,sand has
also had upon eaftk dreams of apossibte
sphere in which he. and his
|lady.loye may indulge their Affection
without sin and without stint. Who is
TO decide, in this lovers heaven, whether
Guineyere shall give her hand to her
former sweetheart or her former hus-
band One might say, by way of con-
ISOLATION, to her husband; but what then
comes of LanoeIot Doubtless he has
bitterly bemoaned to himself the hard
circumstances that made their earthly
loving sin; doubtless he has bitterly re-
pented him of that sin; doubtless he has
boldly said that he loved Guinevere more
fervently than her husband did, and that
she loved him more warmly than she did
her husband. Who, then, is to be cast
into the herd of sad lovers ?-for that
a company is clearly inevitable.
If the poets must have heaven in
which there is marrying and giving in
marriage-in which there is recognition
of old lovers and the consummation of
earthly loves-they must invent better
one. The present effort of anthropo-
morphic imagination is wholly unsatis-
factory. 1t does not satisfy one of the
requirement that such aHplace of future
reparation is meant to meet. The awk-
ward problems it suggests arc even more
puzzling than those which perpleX our
present life. Here we do manage to
bury and forget some unsuccessful love
affairs; but there they would be all resus-
citated, with the most disastrous conse-
quenccs. Most men, at the smallest
computation, fall in love half dozen
times in their life. If they marry the
sixth time, they moro or less entirely
forget tho previous coquottings with
marital responsibilities. But though
they forget, they do not know that the
young persons who were made tho sub
ject of these successive experiments have
also forgotten. If they only properly
recognized the position, they might we'll
tremble to think of entering that future
sphere of accomplished love. Which of
all these girls is to meet them on the
threshold? Or shall all the lot meet the
newcomer. and confront him with mute,
imploring, or reproachful eyes? Which
rage of all the rest? Julia, whom he
passionately loved at nineteen; Kate,
who nearly broke his heart at twenty
one; the brisk young widow who had
almost run away with him and married
him the next year; the young French
girl whom he vainly besought to give up
her intention of entering o convent; that
stately Miss Desmond, who held him,
with thirty others, her slave for the space
of eighteen months; or that quiet cousin
of his, whom he was on the point of
marrying when she died? He cannot
tell how many of these may be looking
forward to this new world of enfran-
chised hearts for the consummation Of
their innocent and unhappy earthly love-
This special heaven which sad lovers
construct for themselves may be very
good as sentiment; but it is poor as a
picture; and weak MS doctrine. We
cannot quite afford to do without it,
however; for it gives such beautiful
opportunities for poetical post mortem
anticipations which the biblical heaven
would in no wise countenance. But the
sad lover should avoid accepting it as
reality, and thus throwing away present
chances for future impossibilities.
The GETTYSBURG REUNION FREQ
4