American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-02-15
True Marriage.

True marriage is complete companion
ship. As the cOmpaniOnshfp grows less,
the marriage becomes untruthful, loses its
earliest spring, dwindles from its apex.
The deepest expression of love is longing
for the object loved. When the longing
proportion. Companionship is the reali-
zation of the longing; and the realization
which does not produce safety touches
and blends with the ideal. All the ro-
nance of the freshest emotions tends to
and demands companionship. The most
ordinary lovers are as Daphne and Apollo
when first they catch the soft infection.
spired warm them with poetic fervor, and
the common things that compose their
life assume the htes of remembered
dreams. The instinct of combanionship
is strong upon them. They glide to each
other like concurrent streams, and once
together, their rustic silence is more elo-
quent than nodded words. Their sole
thought, their one desire, is companion
ship, whose presence and influence lend
color and warmth, rhythm and rhyme to
the rude prose of their being. For hours
they will sit beneath stagnant pool and
see the heaven of their hope mirrored on
its turbid surface. They will walk hand
In hand through berren fields that are to
them as Armida's enchanted garden.
They will be surrounded by poverty and
meanness, and personal contact will con-
jure these into affiuence and splendor. In
all such externals companionship is the
transparent power, the cunning creature
of beautiful illusions, the spiritual sorcer-
er that cOmpels the outward state to re-
fleet the inner mood.
AS with co ,rse, SO it is with fine human
ity. Like seeks like throughout the uni
verse, and this seeking aetaihs its end In
AMI lfvroo n fam
mime in all the kingdoms strive toward
each other; wanting rest until conjoined
and wanting development until cOntigu-
ity be secured. While companiOnship
continues satisfaction lasts; but both are
usually temporary from the absence of
congenial conditions. Marriage, repeat,
is cOmpanionship, and with the termina-
ton of companiOnship veritable divorce
begins. Wedlock. as generally seen, is a
lude of verse followed by tedious chapters
of awkwardly constructed prose. The
proem represents companionship, and the
subsequent part it's withdrawal. If the
companionship could but be preserved,
each month would prove honeymoon ;
discords, chickering's, and misunderstand-
ings would diminish rather than increase,
because the action of contact wears off an
giles and adjusts uneven surfaces to one
another. Men would not silk; Women
would not regret; nor would Both tiirn to
the past with the unavailing wish to undo
the present. Their burdens would be
lighter by the sharing of them their dis
contents be softened by sympathetic UNI
folding. Their ways might be dark and
devious; but the consciousness that they
should walk where'er they went, closely
and tenderly together, woald shed such
light upon their pathway that the dark
ness would be dispelled and the devious
ness made straight. 1t is never too late
to resume companionship- that
they who need it most might remember
this land yet they who have surrendered
it rarely look for it again. When they
step apart, the slightest channel of their
separation brOadens and deepens, until
what was a crevice becomes yawning
chasm, which few have the strength or
courage to leap. If they would but
stretch their yearning arms across,
wounded faith, broken affection, bruised
tenderness could pass over the natural
bridge and be made whole once more by
receiving back what had been their own,
and must soon again be mutually pos
sessed.-Josits Henri Bro,cne in february
GALAXY.