The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1890-09-27
WRONG NOTIONS ABOUT ATTACH
MENTS.

are among the most familiar senti-
ments Of the human heart; yet there
are some very mistaken notions re-
specting them. The general idea is
that they are, as enduring as the
heart itself; that no one who has
ever cherished either friendship for
man or love for woman should
change, or can change; and that, let
our circumstances or our situation
on the globe be altered as they may,
we must never forget the people who
formerly were around us, or the spot
we once called our home. Thus,
when we part from a friend whom
we are almost certain never to see
again, we take as many promises of
a close epistolary correspondence.
as if our mutual welfare in future
depended on continual attachment,
or as if anything else would be a
kind of treason against one of the
most sacred of human sentiments.
We depart for the new scene and
the new society with desponding
hearts, as if we believed it ever i'm
possible again to form such attach.
ments as those we are ust breaking.
1t may be whispered to us that we
may perhaps soon forget our old
friends for the sake of the new, and
lose the recollection of former scenes
in the charm of the present. But we
repel these insinuations with kind
of indignation, and determine, may
almost say whether we will or no, to
preserve mournful retrospectiGp OF
the past.
Now, the truth is we are not de-
signed to live upon the recollection
of either past faces or past scenes.
Friendship and love are not to be
supported for any length of time
without personal intercourse; nor
can any scene ever be so important
to us in recollection as that in which
we are Immediately placed Instead
of affection being tangible object,
which we can pledge away forever,
as the heart is supposed to be in
norsensical poetry, it is power
residing inalienablv within usoto be
exerted on whatever successive OBJ
jects we are pleased with, the new
objects regularly attracting a certain
quantity of affection away from the
old, till, in the end, the old have
little or none remaining. Some
readers will exclaim against this doc
trine as a most unnatural one; but,
in order to convince ourselves that
that it is really correct, let us recol.
lect the fate Of any one OF all the
friendships and loves we ever cher
ished.
Suppose, for instance, the case in
which friendships are thought to be
most warm-a school intimacy.
Who that ever entertained even the
most enthusiastic attachment of this
kind and, on parting, vowed to write
regularly every month, if not oftener,
ever found that the correspondence
was in the least degree interesting
after the first year? A few fond let
tiers are exchanged, breathing the
very spirit of old friendship. But
soon this becomes tiresome. One
of the parties happens to delay ans
wering a letter of the other, till he
is almost ashamed to do it; the re-
ply to this is more dilatory still; and
at last the correspondence, from
which so much was expected, ceases
altogether. 1t is much the same
with tender intimacies. Love, to be
lasting, must be frequently fed with
a sight of the loved object. AT a
distance, other objects are present
ed, and the affair is at length only
maintained at the expense of a strug-
gle of principle-in which it is, Of
course, no longer love.
Nor is it wrong that our affections
should be thus transferable. If we
could never love but one woman in
the course of our lives, or expert
ence a friendship but for one local
set of friends, we would be miserable
creatures indeed. The chances
would. in that case, be ten to one
against our obtaining partner in
the least agreeable to us. We would
probably enjoy both friendship and
love only for one brief space in
youth. while happening to be at a
particular place, far from our event
ual residence. All the rest of life
every other part of the world-would
to us be waste. Now, as the case
really stands, though the scenes and
the friends and the loves of youth
are, perhaps, the most permanently
endeared, ard though it is certainly
proper that we should not cast off
old attachments with an appearance
of indifference or inconstancy, so as
to give pain to those we are parting
from, we can, nevertheless, find more
or less pleasure in all the scenes
which fortune has provided for our
residence.
The Fourth Finger.
II &c n oenera11v known fact that