Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1875-10-15

ton at all This blended being of the
man and woman is first of all piece of
exquisite mechanism ordained of Heaven
for perfect work ON this earth, and it is
the very first condition that all the arms
of its power should be equal to their de-
sign; but when this power fails by our
folly on either side the thing in that
shape is past praying for. We can only
pray then for power and grace to make
the best of it, and thank God that PRAYER
can always be answered. So Ihope when
they cried: g Mercifully ordain that we
may grow aged together" this most out
ward condition was there in their nature,
or else they might as well have prayed
that the wheels of watch, one-half steel
and the other pewter, might grow aged
together So tell yol, young men, if
you are not wholesome clean through,
and you, young women, If you will not
train yourselves to 'tlss fi.lest and strictest
womanhood possible TO your nature, if
you will not eat brown bread, and work in
the garden, if You have one, with any more
grip than bird scratching, quit reading
novels in a hot room and devouring sweet
meats, if you dare not face the sun and
wind, and try to outwalk and outrun your
brothers, or let our sweet, wise mother
not say amen when your stalwart young
husband cries " Mercifully Ordain that
we may grow aged together"
] said this is the most outward cOndi-
ton. Reaching inward we find others
more serious. These young people have
to find each other out, and they may spend
lifetime. in doing it. Some find each
other out as mariners have sometimes
found out the polar seas. They leave the
shores of their single life in the spring
days with tears and benedictions on them
they sail on while in sunshine and fair
weather, and then, somehow, they find
their way little by little into the cold lati-
tudes, and see the sun sink day by day,
and feel the frost creep in and harden
them, until at last they turn to ice, sitting
at the same table and sleeping in the same
room.
Others again find each other out as in
all these years we have been finding out
this new world They settle down at first
among the meadows by the spring, then
they go through belt of shadow and lose
their way to find it again by and by, and
come cut into wider spaces and better
land than they left. They meet the rug
ged hills and climb them together, strike
the deserts and cross them together, come
to the mountains and scale them together,
and then they see the other ocean, and
reach it together; and so their journey
ends. But through shadow and shine they
keep toeether; they allow no disaster to
divide them, and no third person, not even
the mother-in-law, to interfere.
Did you ever hear my definition of mar
riage? Sydney Smith says: 1T resem-
bles pair of shears, so Joined that they
cannot we'll be separated, moving often in
opposite directions, but always Furnishing
anyone that comes between them" The
remark is as wise as it is witty, and he
might have added: "Part the shears
asunder, and then all you have left is
two poor daggers." So it is possible that
we may grow gray as we find each other
out, and wonder why we never saw that
trait before or struck that temper; but if
keeps the rivet in its place the years will
be sure to bring new reasons for more
perfect union, and the sweet Scotch ballad
will be psalm of life:
John Anderson, my 10, John,
We clomb the hill together,
And many CAVITY day, John,
We've had wiz ane anither;
Moo we nun toodle doom, John,
But hand in hand We'll go,
And sleep together at the 70 OF, -
John Anderson, my 10.
But in finding each other out, again, it
is possible that like my mothers old
shears, over which I used to ponder when
was a boy, one side will be greater than
the other. Now, what are we to do about
that? I found my old friend James Mott
delighted, one evening when went to call,
because as he was walking in his garden
two men went by and one said, That is
James Mott and the other answered,
"And who is James MOTIF" Why, don't
you know? 1t is Lucretia Motifs hus-
band" Now, James Mott was anything
but common man. With lesser half
he would have seemed great, and he was
great in perfect loyalty to truth and
goodness, but his wife was the woman of
century, while he was so noble and great
of soul as to be glad and proud of her
greatness, and at the same time seemed
greater for his worship, a feat few men
ever accomplish. Audubon, our peerless
naturalist, married good, sweet wife,
and when she began to find him out she
found that he would wander off 1000
miles in quest of bird. She said amen,
and went with him so long as she had no
sacred reason for staying at home, crossed
the Alleghenies with him on horseback,
camped in the woods, lived in log huts
and shanties on the frontier, entered
into his enthusiasm, and counted all things
but loss for the excellency of the glory of
being Audubon's wife. When the chill
dren began to come to them he had to
wander off alone, but he could not go into
a valley so deep or wilderness so distant
that the light would not shine on him out
of their window He knew just where he
should find her, and how she would look,
for while, as Ruskin reminds us, the
clouds never take the same form again, we
know the sunshine as we know our most
familiar friend, and it was sunshine he
saw when he looked homeward and so, if
you have read his notes, you will remem-
Der how his heart breaks forth into sing
ing in all sorts of unexpected places as he
thinks of the wife and children waiting
his return; and so they grew aged to-
gether, until they dropped into the lap of
| God like mellow fruit. 1t was laid on
him to do this curious wild work. How
her woman's heart yearneu to have him
home we may well imagine; and how
gladly she would have sacrificed some of
his greatness to keep her children's father
at her side, but she did not tell him so,
| and now she is changed into the same
image, from glory into glory, as by the
| spirit of the Lord.
My story ends before the answer to the
PRAYER is granted. They must be getting
on when we leave them, for they have six
sons; but they move away and the curtain
falls on them forever-but it makes little
matter. I know just how it was with
them if they kept these safeguards
and followed this inspiration that | have
tried to teach. When Oberlin was eighty
years old and very infirm, in climbing one
of his mountains he was obliged to lean
| on the arm of a Younger man. while his