The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-03-10
The Duty Of Falling in Love.
RHYMING VIEW OF THE MATTER.
The modern Corudon and Amarvlli

The modern Corydon and Amaryllis
are just like those OF old, pair of sillies
They love short interviews with danger
nigh; they understand the language of
the eye; they doat on moonlight and the
murmuring sea, and they agree that
nothing in the world is half so sweet as
those brief moments when they chance
to meet and squeeze each other hands
upon the sands, while O er the ocean the
red sun goes down, and seems to leave
them with jealous frown. Then, if the
night be very still and calm, they venture
arm-in-arm with stolen steps to stroll
along the beach, bereft of speech, but
signing now and then, as though heart
at every sigh were roughly rent apart,
and glancing with those chances which
explain so very much when words would
all he vain. But, as the moon arises,
speech returns. He whispers how his
soul with passion burns; he states his case
with some exaggeration, and, in the &c,
stacy of admiration, he sometimes kneels
upon the silver strand TO ask her for her
hand;-but only if the sand be dry and
clean-in which case there's a romantic
scene. She bushes, hesitates, and,
maybe, says some low soft words which
seem at once to raise his spirits and HIM
self; for, full of bliss, he rise, like trout,
to catch kiss.
Poor fish, safe hooked! But no! 1t
cannot be that in the after season she or
he will regret those moments sentimental,
when he appeared so good and she SO
gentle!
Then back they steal, with frequent
halts for kissing, half terrified lest friends
may find them missing; and in the morn
ing he takes heart to call on her papa
and .shyly tells them all. The meek
confession leads to inquisition respecting
both his income and condition; and when
all queries have been satisfied, the swain
may call the maid his future bride. We
must believe that henceforth all is honey,
although the cynics cruelty deny it, and
him at strife DER bills and pocket-money
for those who, charmed by matrimony,
try it. The man will smoke, they say,
the wife object the wife will flirt or join
sonic vicious sect; in fine, according to
these dismal sages, the fairest books
contain some blotted pages. Perhaps
they do; but he who wins beauty may
keep her if he bravely does his duty; and
not shaft from He'll, or Heaven above,
can Stay the soul that shields its life with
love. He must be strong and kind, and
never weak, and she will give him all his
hopes can seek; until, at last, the two
together grown, her thoughts in all
things will reflect his own. For man is
crude and useless at creation; he is but
fashioned as a complement, and learns,
by little short of inspiration, that to per-
feet his being he is sent into the world.
His guide isinclination, and by miracle
his gaze is bent one day upon the woman
counterpart whom destiny has moulded
to his heart. Fel,ces ter ct an1pIjWs, says
| Flaccus, quoS tenet copuJa arruptd. j
agree with him that sorrows seldom
wrack us, and that in happiness we live
and die when kindly Fate is good enough
to tack us to the right object; but can't
deny that sometimes Fate refuses to
eliminate that object, and is rather in
discriminate. There are, in fact, bad
marriages as we'll as sweetmeats which
are poisonous and kill-the marriages
concocted deep in He'll by fiends
whose chiefest object is still in human
breasts all craving after good-fends
who d abolish virtue if they could. Such
marriages are based on admiration, with
out respect or knightly veneration, on
| greed for wealth, on need of high posi-
ton, and on vain hopes of lettering con-
dition; but love alone can render mar
riage lawful, or lead to consequences less
than awful.
And who may sheer at woman? Not
the brother, and not the son of any low
ing mother! She gives us life and ten
derness and love; and who can give us
more save Heaven above? The lover,
ling ring DER his first loves $. kiss, dreams
that woman as an angel is; but,
though an angel has been seen by no
man, often think an angel is woman.
What can be brighter, what can be more
fair than she who stands with ripping,
sun-kissed hair; with perfect form, with
dimpled, downy cheeks, with ruddy lips
whereof the silence speaks-the brilliant
picture that has often moved before the
eyes of him who e'er has loved? She
may be weak; but who would have her
strong? The wish would do her grace
apd beauty wrong! She may have faults,
but if she had them not, she would not
be on earth to share the lot of faulty
man, to whom she has been given that
he may school himself for life in Heaven.
Then let us honor her and hold her
dear as some rare starry guest among
us here; as some rare guest from regions
far and still, who must be shielded from
the rough worlds ill. Twill not be
labor lost, for woman knows no fears,
no obstacles and no repose, when she is
truly loved, until the debt to its last
fraction has been fully met. Twill not
be labor lost, for Paradise, once forfeited,
may be regained by him who, spite of
woman's mood and woman's whim, to
her for all his peace and comfort flies In
her soft arms his earthly heaven lies.
Her own sweet lips his full forgiveness
speak. The man who loves may err in
being weak, but he who does not love
cannot be wise.
Thus all should love, as nature bids
them do; the nightingale trills out his
tale at night, the timid doves their peace
full passions cool, and natures self re-
,spects the Love-god' S might, for is there
anything on earth that's singleP And
willows bend across the streamlet's
breast, while streamlets with the stronger
rivers mingle, and in the ocean rivers
find their rest, Loving is living and the
GO. 4 L IL.