Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1870-01-05
The CHRONICLE.
Beecher on Love, Home, Marriage and
DIHnrcaa.


Divorces.
The Boston Advertiser says of Mr..
Beecher's lecture in the Old Bay State
Course, in Boston, on Thursday even
ing, that it was given to an audience
crowding Music Hall to its utmost ca
pacity, and that "the discourse was
admirable, both in regard to depth OF
thought and sentiment, to itI wealth
Of graceful and apt imagery, and from
the many sidedness with which it was
treated. We select from the AdUerH-
ser's report a few notable passages:
The lecturer began by saying that
he was sorry for any man to whose ear
there was any sweeter word than that
OF Home His must have been q
sad history to whom its sound had no
music. After q few feeling illusions
to the inexpressible attractions of
home, he said that the secret fits ten
der memories was to be found only in
the divine nature of that love whose
seed was planted in childhood, and
whose growth was the tree oflife. Not
withstanding the universal grace and
witching beauty attending the dawn
OF early love, yet this very fact often
AOOd AOI hlAILh anu aAAACAI .
1t might be said by a cynic that this
was a Kind Of revenge practicsd by
grownpeOple for having been deceived
and fooled themselves. There were
some persons, however, who had been
in love all their lives who had no
grudge to avenge, and yet young love
was just as full Of mirth to them as il
was TO the grumblers-with its limo
cent wiles, its noble sympathies, its
times to come and go, as if it bad the
whole ocean behind its generosity, its
Astounding hopes and its poetry. Yet
II he recollected Alright, when he was
in love, there was nothing ludicrous
about it. He was never so in earnest
in his life. 1t was the point of view
that made the difference.
The power O flOve must be measured
not by its intensity, but by effects
by its beneficence in bringing into
play a higher range of motives, by the
faculties it unfolded, by its skill in
harmoniZing different natures. One
grand mistake was in supposing love
begun was love completed. The or
chardist knew that blossoms were not
apples, but the lover often thought
they were. No man could love with
all his faculties at once. II he could,
there would be less excitement-the
power Of love equally distributed
through the soul would produce calm
andstrength. When love brought to-
gether two inherently adapted to each
other, or two who had been tried in
the furnace of af1iction, OF in a wide
experience, without which there was
no true manhood or womanhood, then
possibly love might begin at the we'd
ding. Without such experience how
ever, two young people did not know
anything. The magistrate married /;
but marrying was not mating. Not
once in a hundred times did two ma
lures brought side by side harmonic
in every part. OF nothing were peo-
pie more Ignorant than of human ma
ture. Very rich and fruitful natures
were often side by side with very bar
rem ones-noble natures with sordid
ones-exquisitely sensitive with in
tensely tough.
He then spoke Of the amount of dis
cipline, of mutual forbearanee neces-
sary to develop thorough harmony in
married life. Men were said to fall
into love. They did fall, and many
never rose again. They should not
falI-they should climb. Marriage
was a school where men should go for
reconstruction.
The lecturer then considered other
conditions of wedlock, and remarked
that he had seen a royal woman mar
~ a pigmy, and in a score ofyears she
had so nursed him that it was not a
SANDER to the species to call him a
man. Most people were only partially
married. Only those were Thoroughly
married whose natures were recipro-
cal-meetiDg reason with reason, and
moral affection with moral affection
so that both ruled and served. The
real victories Of love were those which
came late.
With reference to the question ofdi-
vorce, he said that married people
should learn to overcome their diff
culties within the household. Disci-
pline, suffering, and self-cOntrol, and
mutual fOrbearance gave additional
sacredness to love, and would often
change discord into harmony. Facile
divorce might help a few sufferers,
but it was at the expense of society at
large. The remedies Of the possible
evils Of marriage should be at the door
of entrance, and not at its exit. He
deprecated the growing laxity Of pub
lie sentiment in this matter. The
household should be a school where
twShearts should intelligently adjust
their difference, and then they would
not wish to separate.
He then controverted the opinion
that the family tie and the family in
huence had degenerated. He main
tanned it was never so full of glorious
promise as to-day. He then contrast
ed the modern family under Christian
ity with the family under Judaism
and Paganism, and showed how the
richness and refinement and diversi-
fed sources Of the former had inereas-
ed. This he ascribed to the gradual
rise Of woman from a state Of vassal-
age to her present condition.
He then drew some powerful srgu-
ments from this with a view to show
that when woman elevated herself to
a perfect equality with man, the glo-
~, the beauty, the goodness and joy
of home life would be immensely in
creased. There would be nobler moth
erhood, nobler children and nobler
men. At every step woman took to-
ward equality with men, men had
cried out that she would lose her deli
cacy and those cried the loudest who
had done most to destroy that delica-
cy. 1t was for the sake Of the house
hold that he pleaded for a nObler edu-
cation, a larger liberty for woman.
Whatever they had they would bring
back to the home. Every duty Of the
household would be better done under
increased intelligence.