The Louisiana Democrat., 1889-01-16

quiver Of his friend Cupid. under the
portico Of a temple of the Euston-road
order of architecture. Could we once
more popularize the myth of the
beautiful youth Of Argos who, sailing
along the coast of Attica, delivered
number of lovely maidcns from the
violence of the Pelasgian pirates, and
was afterward praised by them in their
bridal or hymeneal songs, the aspira-
tions of the late Mr.. Wright might ap-
pear far less absurd than they proba-
bly, do to a cynical and matter-of-fact
generation. who are too apt to regard
marriage only as financial transac-
ton or as a convenient means OF set
tling down into housekeeping without
paying the lady-housekeeper her prop
er wages. If the maidens, not of At
tica, but of England, could only be
brought to regard the single gentle
men, even to the most callOw young
curates among them, as SO many pos
sible sons Of Dionusos and Aphroditc,
and favorite of Apollo and Calliope,
they would naturally do their best to
render themselves in every way worthy
of semi-celestial patronage. Of course
they would be early-risers; the Dryads
and the Hamadryans were always
astir by sunrise; and, as for cold
bathing, if we are to believe
the imaginative artists who contribute
| to the exhibition of the Paris salon,
the nymphs of antiquity passed at least
half their time in the water The vO-
taries of Hymen would be sedulous
students of vocal music, else how could
| they become proficient in singing the
songs to which Hymen loves to listen?
But whether those ditties should be
warbled to the accompaniment of the
| grand pianOfOrte, or the violin, for
| which lovely woman has of late years
manifested SO pronounced penchant,
or of the banjo, which is making such
| brilliant headway in modern boudoirs,
must be left to aesthetic taste and in
tellectual perception of Hymen's grace
| full pupils. 1t is, nevertheless, obvious
that, were the maidens to live up to
the poetic idea of hymeneal choris-
ters, the youths of the period must on
their side live up to the poetic idea of
Hymen in its noblest and purest sense
Mr.. Swinburne would surely not be re-
luctant to tell us that the Hymen who
followed the coy nymph to Eleusis,
and in vain importuned her to dance
with him at the festival of Demeter, but
who eventually won her hand and
heart, was type Of all that should be
held refined, unsoiled high-minded
and self-sacrilicing in manhood. The
terrestrial Hymen had to prove him
self worthy of his adored one ere she
consented to become his bride. Like
the knight in Coleridge's lyric, "he
saved from outrage worse than death
the Lady of the Land;n but his end
was happier than that of the preuS
chevalier whose untimely fate caused
Genevieve to shed such pitcous tears
for Hymen married the Lady of the
Land, and the pair lived happily ove1
afterward
To be perfectly consistent, the well.
meaning but, as it has been shown,
wholly impracticable Vicar of Harbury
should have proposed to endow a train
ing college for intending Edwins as
well as one for potential Angelinas. II
would, no doubt. be an excellent thing,
although the idea is wholly Utopian
to have q college or seminary il
which girls could be trained
for the manifold duties and re-
sponsibilities of matrimony. There
are plenty of textbooks on the
subject, from which well-qualiied pro
fessors could deliver most edlfying lect
ures. The exemplary Hannah More
the excellent Mrs. Chapone, Mrs Bar
bauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Ellis
have all had their say on the duties o
wives, mothers and mistresses, while
the mother of the Wesleys drew up fol
the benefit of her son john wonder
full code for the management aud edu
cation of children, conspicuous in tn,
rules of which were that child 81
soon as it had attained the mature age
of twelve months was to be made "t(
fear the rod and to cry SOFTLY" and tina
it was not to be taught its letters be
fore it was five years old. 1t would b.
feasible to instruct the wives, mother
and house-mistresses of the future il
all the mysteries of cooking and tn,
other branches of domestic economy
and to give them valuable hints as t,
} shopping and engaging servants. |
would not be very difficult to teacl
them how to take care of their owl
, health and that of their children, an,
, supplementary course of instruction
might be added touching music, dane
ing, novel-reading, play-goirg, hirta
ton, lawn tennis and the writing
, of amatory epistles. Supposing
> however, that such hymenea
training school passed out Of the do
Q main OF fancy into that Of fact, woul,
Q IL not be possible that the domestic &C
e compllshments which Angelina ha,
: acquired. might be neutralized b.
/ class ignorance on the art of mat
Y rimony on the part of Edwin, and hi
. utter incapacity or stolid unwillinenes
5 to bear his allotted portion of the con
t iugal burden? Properly to recipro
f cate the efficiency of Angelina, Edwi
should have graduated in a colleg