The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-11-21
This comes largely

to be inferior to man, to have no
right to independence, but to be de-
signed to be under his rule, to
! marry him, raise children, and work
for him and them, in short, to be his
property" something better than his
dog, little dearer than his horse"
George Sand, in 1866, describes
peasant couple following old Gus
tom," of whom the husband sat at
table alone, and was waited on by
his wife, and she sat before the fire
to take her meals, holding her bowl
of victuals in her lap. Being the
husbands property, it was thought
that the widow had no right to take
successor to him. Hence, among
ancient Gevmans only virgins could
marry. And the ancient Romans con-
sidered a second marriage by women
discreditable; and the fact of a
widow being but once married was
sometimes inscribed on her tomb as
doing her honor. This notion had its
elimination in the suttee, in India,
which was the burning of the widow
on the pile where her dead husbands
body was incinerated. Both Virgil
and Dante condemn widow Dido as
false to Sichaeus in falling in love
with Aeneas.
Why should not woman marry a
second, or third, or fourth time?
There is no martial state hereafter.
The order of nature is the union Of
the sexes. There is more than most
persons think in the fable of Aristo-
nhanes, in Plato's Banquet" to the
effect that there was but one kind of
human being originally, but that it
was afterwards divided-one-half be-
| ing man, and the other, :won1an-and
that, ever since, each half has been
seeking union with the other. A
woman in desiring second, or third
mate, is actuated by natural,
proper, wholesome impulse.
There is much nonsense in the talk
about first love and the grand pas
sion. Most men and women have
been in love several times; and the
fifth or tenth attack may be the
deepest and most lasting. And a
woman, after experience with one
husband, may be better fitted to live
with man than the average mex
perienced maiden. I do not concur
in Montaigne's opinion, that it is
usually best that husband and wife
be not in love with each other at
marriage; but a marriage between
persons respecting each other, and
desirous to perform their respective
duties is very often more productive
of happiness than many a one con-
| tracted in the heat of passion. OF
course there are some persons, as
Novalis says, who, on account Of
peculiar, self-centered individuality,
and incapacity to adapt themselves
to others, ought never to marry; be-
cause, as he says, they are not made
for matrimony-''nicht zum Ehes-
tande" gemacht." But such persons
are very rare.
A widow ought not to. be in a
hurry to marry-as was Lady Hatton,
who, barely twanty-one, beautiful,
and wealthy, and after saying that
there were seven objections to Sir.
Edward Coke-himself and his six
children - married.. within four
months after he buried his wife, that
ugly, Grabbed widower, aged forty
eight years. So Of Q cen Margaret
of Scotland, who, in year after the
death Of her excellent husband,
James the Fourth, married the greedy
Earl of Angus. The result, in each
case, was trouble to the woman, and
worry to everybody connected with
her.
And the widow of middle age, or
thereabouts, should be careful as to
the young suitor. He may require
a great deal of watching, after she
gets him.
History makes little mention of
widows, except in political life. There
they have usually not much to their
credit. There are Athaliah, Tom
wis, Artemesia Of Halicarnassus,
Agrippina, mother of Nero, Matilda
of England, Anne Of Austria, and the
two Medici women in France, the
two Catharines, Elizabe and Anna
Ivanowna, in Russia, Isabella the
Second and her mother, in Spain
all which had records. Margaret OF
D,,r,o,.y- and NorUaC is doubtful