The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-05-06
"youn~ Woman at sixteen. Boy Al Twenty
The Rev. Francis Jaco1 IN Eelsrayi"I

the woman should ever lahc az V't'i t''"''
herself, is enforced by the assurance hc SlEeS
the seeming CPsarO that young men IAN
clcs are more giddy add unhrm, mort Iohe
ing, wagering, sooner lost ana worm man
women are" And it may be taken IN elleCtt
TO chime in with what the sprlghtly damosel
ailirms ofhe sex, and, indeed, OF DO'h seA'o'
in philip van Artevelde:'
"But we are women when boys are but boys
God gives Us grace To lIpth anu IIo" "l7'
Some six years earlier
Bows will be boys, and young men Will De
Young men. But young men will he boys II
seems, long after young women nave gwen
their girlhood the go'by.
To be Knocked by ones feminine cocvaIs rs
over Young is, however nothing like so nara
after all, as to be derded by them as over ca
"Ah me. how full is youth of mockery
Rccausr am some wears in advance OF you,
DO not YOU sometimes laugh atmy bIeach Au''
NV suukcn cheek and dcep-cncaycrn eye;
Or, haply, AS afar you pass me hy,,
Compare me with your full-tHsh'd rcuh"c
OF youthhoodE
But our theme is the advance made by dam
sells ahead of masculine youngsters, by laSsie2
to the prejudice of lads, in the developemen'
OF adult conditions and qualities hlCh"f"'
son rules that from sixteen tOt"cnlyIour "o
men are generally several years atorehahu
with the men in ripcness OF understandings
though after that time the men may ripeh
into a superiority. women, my ueai MIS- y
Shelby, are women sooner than men are men,
Sir Charles Grandson says. Cartwright IN
his alphabetically sentimental Love ooH'
vert" has these lines to the purpose;
"Lovc, then, doth work in you what Reason COIN
In us; here only lies the difference:
4, : bn y
But the woman's soul is ripe when 1t IS young
That is significant sentence in Mr. Reade'S
"Cbristie tombstone" which tells OF his hero
Inc and her patronizing regard for Charles
tiatty. Beside, as she was twenty'one ana
he only twenty-five, she felt the difference be.
tween herself, woman, and him. boy 30
with Nelly and WILL in Mrs, Oliphants Ma
donna Mary" "lIe was a little older than
herself actually; but Nelly was an expert
enced woman, and could not but look down
amiably on such an uneXercised lnhabltan!
of the world as only boy Mr.. Thacke.
ray tells us that as we see pauper chlld
with an awful premature knowledge OF the
pawn shop, able to haggle at market with her
wretched halfpence and battle bargains at
hucksters' stalls, 50 may we find young
beauty, who was child in the SchoCl-rOOm
a year since, as wise and knowing as the old
practitioners on tAat exchange, rs eConoml-
cal Of her smiles, rs deXterouS in keeping
back or producing her beautiful wares, as skill
full IN setting one bidder against another, as
keen az the smartest merchant III Vanity
Fair. II am a woman, and understand things
better than boy like you writes the alorc-
said Nelly to the aforesaid VIII when they
are both older grown, and both, II not II the
same degree, worldly wiser.
l.. Al, -, 10 ,t,,,i "a
tung ind Wahrhcit," in which Goethe des-
crlbes his efforts to make himself agreeable
to the sister Of his young friend DerOnes,
without succeeding in attracting her notice,
he observes in passing, that young glrls
think themselves far advanced beyond young
cr boys, and while aspiring to young men
they assume the manner of an aunt toward
the boy whose first inclination Is turned TO-
ward them" In GretChenS case he owns
himself terribly afFronted at her setting HIM
down as child, and believed himself at once
cured of all passion for her when she so set
him down in the celebrated investigation re.
ports lie felt it lntolerable that girl, at
the most couple of years older than him
SELF should regard him as a child, while he
conceived he had passed with her for very
sensible and clever young man.
PAneas Finn is sententiously instructed by
Lady Laura that years have very little 10 do
with the comparative ages of men and wo
men ~ women of forty is quite old, where
as man of forty is young" Duke Orslno
would practically improve the subject by the
caution al h0miacm, or rather al C!rum:
Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bcnt
For women are As roses, whose fair flower.
Being once displayd doth fail that very hour
Which assertion receives Niola's signing as
sent
And SO they are; alas, that they are so;
To die, even when they TO perfection grow"