Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1870-05-18

We do not like this habit Of hcetious-
ness which despois the holiest and most
cherished passages Of Revelation Of their pc
culiar significance aud charm. The golden
vessels Of the temple and its rich jeweled
chaices were never allowed to be touched by
profane hands Ii was sacrilege to bring sa-
cred things down to secular uses and is it
less sacrilege when the very apples Of gold
in pictures Of silver are seized by some rash
hand and made to do duty in the fashionable
exchange Of social life, at turning a compliment
or pointing a jest? Is it any the less impi-
Gus, irrevercnt, when private iacetiousnoss ~
puts the Devils stamp on Gods coin ? Is
it any less sacriege when the words Of heaven
these jowelled chaliees of the wine Of Gods
love and truth, are taken and filed with the
honeyed pleasantly Of human affection and
desire and then offered to the lips Of an earth
y associate or friend We do not like this
profauo and foolish and irreverent prostitu-
ton Of the holiest things. And when men
can do it and not be ashamed Of it, when they
can do it and justify it, they must expect that
both their intellectual and moral tone will
suffer very serious modification. A council
Of minister's" the angels even Of heaven,
might well approve when the voice Of man
should lend new beauty and charm to any
word of God, should make it more significant
or impressive to the hearts Of his fellows,
should increase its light and power as it goes
on its radiant course but what will they say
Of him who diyests such efTulgent words Of
their glory, who quenohes their radiance,
loads them down with the foulest and uahol.
est associations aud sends them out to their
work and office among men, all desocrated and
dripping with their cliuging impieties7 Is
it necessary to rob the heaven Of its stars in
order put them on the brows Of women who
are beguiled out of their senses by such mad
adulation and are led by it to the saddest mis-
takes and the most terrible sorrows2
We do not care to establish the " imputa-
ton of free love- which johnson says we
have made upon him. We did not make it.
We shall not attempt to prove charges we do
not make We published Johnson's letter as
we found it in some other paper, and had no
motive. at all in supprcssing any part of it.
1t is a matter Of no consequence to us whether
he is free lover or not. We only know
that he is the associate editor Of the Inde-
peadent, which has justified Richardson and
Mrs. Mcfarland from the beginning until
now, and that its course has at least favored
that series of events which terminated in one
Of the most painful domestic tragedies in the
annals Of suffering and wrong We only
know that bis letter was good specimen Of
free love literature" and worthy to rank with
the words of his chief, when he approved the
divorce and re-marriage Of Mrs. Mcfarland
The letter seems to us, also, to be a part oil
those moral influences which succeeded at
last in alternating the heart Of this miserable
lady from her husband, and making her the
central figure in history of unspeakablc
gloom. We hardly feel like condemniug her
She would have been more or less than hui
man, to have been unaffected by the incense
Of the hattcry which accomplished her sepa-
ration and divorce. But we venture to as
sert, in our opinion, this letter, and perchance
the bright conversations alluded to in it, helped
her on to release herself from bond which
was once dear to her, and aided in darkening
the fine perceptions of her soul to the wrong
Of the course she pursued. Breathing the
fumes Of such adulation, she felt that sh,
could do no sin. But no Aattery now though
it should be borne to her in consecrated cups
can give her back the happiness Of which i
rayished her. Little matters it to her as sh,
stands over the ruins Of her broken life thai
words have been spoken in her ears which in.
toxicated her heart, blinded her reason, per
yerted her conscience, and laid waste, as NJ
reproaches or cruelties could have done, the
fair gardens of her soul. That wreck was
made, not by her husband, but by her Aatter-
ers; and we're it not for them, her life to-day
would be without the shadow Of the infinite
misery that rests upon it.
No one can read the earnest and affection
ate letters of Mrs. Mcfarland to her husban
in lS66, or the subsequent letters of Rich.
ardson aud johnson to her, after she had
fallen into the hands, and under the influence
of that coterie of the TriJuae and Iadepend-
ent, who fattered her vanity to her wrong
and undoing, and then justified her in it
without wishing that it had fallen to her lot
not to have had her sky blackened by the
compliments and counsel of her " tried and
trusted friends"
If only one of them had used the sacred
Office of friendship or love in order to save
her from the fatal mistake and plunge she
made and kept her true to her plighted obi
cations, the story Of her life, of Richardson:
life and of Netherlands life, might have had
a less mourniu conclusion. But now neither
Richardson's love nor Johnson's facetious ,
compliments, can give her back the beauty
and sweetness of the past, nor erase any Of it
dark memories. 1t were wisdom in her
friends to let the veil drop, nor provoke fur,
Their criticism by further arrogance aud pub
licity.
The Crops.
The monthly report of the statistical diyis