St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-10
Lore Letters of Eminent Persons.

them from the proceedings of the courts in
the trial of breach of promise cases. The
love letters Of men and women of genius,
considered as compositions, are generally
the best. AS rule, men of genius
write much better letters than they re-
ceive. The man of genius generally exalts
some woman into divinity, and the crea-
ture of his Imagination whom he marries
turns out to be very human indeed. Hence,
the wives of literary men are not, as a rule,
very interesting people. People laugh at
Lady Scott because she said that she must
get Sir Walter to write some more Cof his
rubbish to get new carpet. Yet his Char
lotte sent more exquisite love letters to Sir
Walter than any which the great novelist has
produced in his novels. Was there ever a
more graceful love letter than this about
liking the day?
IF [ could but really believe that my let
ter gave you only half the pleasure you ex-
press, l should almost think, my dearest
Scott, that I should get very fond of writing
for the pleasure to indulge you-that is say
ing great deal. hope you are sensible OF
the compliment pay you; don't expect
shall Arrays be so pretty behaved You may
depend on me, my dearest friend, for fixing as
early day as l possibly can; and
if it happens to be not quite SO soon as you
wish, you must not be angry with me. 1t is
very unlucky YOU are such bad housekeeper,
as l am no better. l shall try. 1 hope to
have very soon the pleasure of seeing you;
but wish the first fortnight was over. With
all my love, and thoee sort of pretty things,
adieu CHARLOTTE.
''P. s. Etatcdiez votre FrdncaiSe Remem-
Der, you are to teach me in Italian in return,
but shall be but stupid scholar. Ainaez
Charlotte"
4,1-a Ii 6
some men eminent in the professions. And
first of all of our divines. Chalmers says, in
his diary, just before he was married. obs
missing all anticipations of heaven upon
earth, may betake myself soberly and de-
terminedly to the duties of the married
state.'' We hope the good wife felt fattered
by this expression of Christian resignation |
He was very different to another
Scotch divine of almost equal emf
hence, who, during his honeymoon, SO far
anticipated events as to date his letters from |
Heaven" The love letters of Whitefed |
are curious. He said in them that if he
knew himself he was quite free from the |
giddy passion which the world call love. |
These eminent theologians were not all I'M
like Racine. He married because his confess |
sor recommended him to marry, and thought |
that in this way, he would best overcome his |
unfortunate procliVity for making verses. |
'When he was resolved to marry" says |
his son, "neither love nor interest |
had any thing to do with his choice; and in |
SO serious an affair he consulted reason only" |
His wife did not know the difference between |
poetry and prose, and never read a line of |
her husbands tragedies, except, perhaps, the
titles. One of the briefest of theological
love stories relates to the marriage Of Robert |
Hall. He made up his mind that he would |
marry his servant. So he went into the |
kitchen, and said, ''Betty, do you love he
Lord?" eyes, sir" said Betty. ''Betty, do |
you love meg, he next asked. 81 hope so, |
master" she answered. and they were hap |
PLY married.
The lawyers are people who, as a class, |
seem to have turned out very well in their |
love affairs. We should like to have seen |
the letters which Jack Scott wrote to Miss |
Surtees, or which the famous jurist, Judge |
Butler, wrote to the lasse whom he married |
when he was only eighteen. When Charles |
Yorke, afterwards Chancellor Hardwick, |
asked Worcestershire squire for the hand |
Of his daughter, the old gentleman politely |
asked him about his rent-roll. The young |
lawyer replied that his estate consisted of a |
perch of ground in Westminster Hall.'' Sim
ilarly, when Charles Abbot afterwards Lord |
Chief Justice Tenterden, was asked by a |
pleader showed him his books in one room
and his pupils in another. Both Lady Scott
and Lady Tenterden were esteemed rather
narrow in their housekeeping.
After ALL the best kind of lOve-letter is
that which a man wires to his wife, and there
is at least one very sweet love-letter which
Abbott wrote to his wife, while ON circuit,
with lot Of poetry in it. We have one ex-
cellent example, love-letter, which Macau- |
lay would probably accept as an his |
torical document, written by that no
BILE character, the first Lord Cowper, to |
his sweetheart when young Templar. 1t is |
in statelier phrase than the present familiar |
style, beginning dearest madam and |
ending ''your very humble and affectonate |
servant" He tells her, 81 wish my thoughts, |
that are SO often with you when I am not, |
were not invisible; then you might save |
yourself the trouble of reading such-like |
notes. and see at one view how disconnected |
and veXed they are when l cannot wait on |
you. You would see how forward |
and impatient they grow under |
any other business, and, I'm sure, |
without further apology, would excuse |
me, and forgive my absence for their very |
looks. This is certainly very prettily ex-
pressed by the young Templar. This is the |
chancellor of whom Voltaire used absurdly |
to say that he defended and pract iced polyg- |
amy. Cowper's letters to his wife, and the |
journals he kept for her, show him to have |
been most excellent husband. So far as |
we are acquainted with legal biography, it |
must be said that marriage generally answers |
very well for the lawyers. They seem to be- |
come keenly alive to their responsibilities, |
and settle down steadily to their business.
The men of science do no appear,
on the whols, to have been |
equally happy. We should like to have seen
Comte's letters to his Clotilde, but, as a rule, |
it is i'll for man of science to fall in love
with woman of science. Sir Humphry |
Davy tells his mother, 81 am the happiest OF |
men in the hope of union with a woman |
equally distinguished for virtue, talents, and
accomplishments He joyously tells his
brother, ''Mrs Appreece has consented to |
marry me, and when the event takes place, l
shall not envy kings, princes,
or potentates. ~ Sir Henry Hol- |
land describes the sensation which Mrs. APP
preece made in Edinburgh societies, when
even regius professor went down on his
knees in the street to fasten her shoe.
Nevertheless, the marriage turned out to be
altogether unsuitable and unfortunate
Count Rumford, born in Waltham, Mass, a
philosopher, if ever there was one, married |
Madame Lavosier, philosopher herself,
and widow of philosopher. Almost the
first passage in a youthful note book
was, Love is a noble passion of the
mind" He was four years in counting the
clever Frenchwoman. We do not know
what he wrote to her before marriage, but
this is the way in which he wrote about her
afterwards: 81 have the misfortune to be
married to one of the most imperious, tyran- |
nical, unfeeling women that ever existed,