The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-02-03

by time. nor wither, nor yet corrupt. Some
| merely ripen and mellow and get enriched by
the passage Of the years, retaining the most
delicate womauliness -we had almost said
| girlishness-into quite old age, and blushlng
under their gray hairs while they shrink from
ANYTHING coarse or vulgar OF impure as sensi-
lively as when they we're girls. La femme @
Qudrdnte ans is the French term for the open
ing Of the great gulf beyond which love can
not pass but human history disproves this
date. and shows that the heart can remain
fresh and the person lovely long after the age
fixed for the final adicu to admiration, and that
| the mature siren can be adored BY her own
| contem porar1es when the rising generation re-
gard her as nothing better than chimney
corner fixture. MIR. Trollope has recognized
the claims Of the mature siren IN MS .Orley
Farm" and Miss Mackenzie )" and no onesean
DENY the intense naturalness OF the characters
and the interest Of the stories.
Another point with the mature woman is
that she is not jealous nor exactlns. She knows
the world, aud takes what comes With the phi
losophy that springs from knowledge. If she
is of an enjoying nature-ald sh , cannot DC
the top without looking, too deep into the cup
and specializing on the time when she shall
have drained it to the dregs. Men feel safe
with her. If they have entered on tender
/ friendship with her, they know that there will
be no scene. no tears, no upbraldlngs, when
ant little drama. with the inevitable vile as the
scene-shittcr. The mature siren knows so we'll
that fate and the wife must break in between
her and her friend. that she is resigned from
the first to what is foredoomed, and SO accepts
her bitter portion. when it comes, with dignity
and in silence. Where younger women would
fall into Mysteries and make scene, perhaps
go about the. world taking their re-
venre in slander, the mlddle.aged wo-
man holds out friendly hand, and takes
the back seat gallantlv: never showing by
word or look that she has felt her deposition.
She becomes tho best friend OF the new house,
hold; and, if any onels jealous, ten to one 1t is
the husband that Is jealous OF her love for his
wife, or perhaps it is the wife herself, who c!n-
not see what her husband can iud to admire
40 much in Mrs. A., and who pouts at his ex
traordint.iy predilection for her, though
of course she would scorn to be jcalous-as,
indeed. she has no cause. For even O mature
siren, however delightful she may be, is not
likely to come before q young wife in the heart
of her husband. Though the French paint the
love of o woman of forty as pathetic, because
slightly ridiculous and certainly hopeless. yet
they arrange the theory OF their social life 80
that a vouth is generally supposed to make his
drst love of married woman many years his
elder, and a mature siren finds her last love ID
a vouth. WS have not come to THIS yet III
England, either in theory or practice, and it
is to bo hoped that we never shall
come to it. Many sirens are all very we'll
for men of their own age, and it is
pleasant to see them still loved and admired,
and to recognize 10 them the claims OF
women to something higher than mere perso-
nal passion; but the cIse would be very differ
ont if they became ehoulish seducers Of the
Young, and kept up the habits of love by en-
taugliug boyish hearts and blighting youthful
lives. As they are now, they form charming
element in society, and are Of Inn ate use TO
the world. They are the ripe fruit in the gar.
den where else everything Would be green and
lmmatura-the last DAYS Of the golden summer
inst before the chils of autumn come on; they
Contain in themselves the advantages OF two
distinct epochs, and while possessing as much
personal charm as youth, possess also the
gains which come by experience and maturity.
They keep things together as the young alone
could not do: and no gathering OF friends is
perfect which has not one or two mature sirens
10 give the tone to the resi-, and prevent en-
ccs.es. They soften the aSDerities of high
handed boys and girls, which else woiit be Too
biting; aud they set people ut ease, ana make
them in good humor with themselves, by the
courtesy with which they listen to them, and
the patience with which they bear with them.
Even the very girls who hate them icrcely as
rivals love them passing we'll as half maternal,
half sistcrly companions and the first person
to whom they would carry their sorrows would
be a mature siren, quite capable ON her own
part of having caused them. It would be hard
indeed ii the loss OF youth did not bring with
it some compeusations but the mature siren
suffers less from that loss than any other kind
of woman. Indeed, she seems to have q pri-
yate elixir of her own which is not quito DRAIN
ed dry when she dies, beloved and regretted,
at threescore years and ten leaving behind
her one or two old friends who were once her
ardent lovers, and who still cherish her mem-
ory as thai OF the finest aud most fascin ting
woman they ever knew-something which the
present generation is utterly incapable of re-
peating.