Year: 1865

ordeal as this, unless it may be those pc
culiar temperaments that grow sour and
acrid in the blasting winds Of adversity-
old bachelors pre-ordained. For such we
fear there is no hope.


We have heard great amount fwhole-
sale criticism lavished upon the converse
ton of young people who are in love, or
engaged. Now this is scarcely right or
just. We make no pretensions, as ma
ton, to being conversationally perfect; it
would hardly be difficult to pick flaws Of
language in any circle, and we really do
not see that lovers are any worse than
other people in this respect. $50 silly"
We beg leave essentially to differ here
Silly people will be silly, whether they are
young or old, married or single and if
they happen to reach the ante-matrimonial
stage, they will most undoubtedly make
silly lovers. But we have yet to learn
that the conversation of two sensible
young people, even if they happen to be
engaged, is materially different from that
of the rest of our wise world. "All made
up of romance and sentiment" Not all.
And we freely volunteer our opinion as
one individual of the aristocratic public,
that existence without any of the GRO
mantle and sentimental elements would
be an unmitigated bore! Who wants to
talk perpetually about the price of coal
and revenue taxes? What are poetry
and painting, sunshine and flowers in
tended for, if not to talk about? And if
lovers are to be debarred from anything
that is not earthly and prosaic, simply be-
cause they are lovers, why, we consider
them to be living under rather a hard
dispensation +! Only, lovers Of this year,
1866, remember that it is in the power Of
your own tongues to vindicate or condemn
yourselves. Remember that there are
enough acidulated critics standing ready
to take advantage of the least opportunity
for fault-fnding, and do not give them
chance to sneer about " loVe-sick nom
sense p People may be money-sick,
business-sick, church h-mission-sick, socie-
ty.sick, or fashion-sick, without comment
or criticism, but they must on no account
be love-sick. The strict justice and par
tiality of the =" they say" doctrine is some
thing sublime to contemplate !!


But let the callous, case-hardened fault
finders cavil as they will, none of their
venom can check the warm, natural cur
rent of human affection. God intended
that this world should be full of love and
lovers shall we, in our petty Importance,
be more discerning than the All-wise Fa-
ther? We believe that tenderer, more
penetrating eye than ours keeps watch
over the happiness and interests OF our
lives we believe that true marriage
marriage alike Of hearts and hands-is
sanctioned and approved by Heaven
"Whom " God hath joined together let no
man put asunder" Is there no truth in
the good old Bible words ?


There are people who seem made ex-
actly for each other-whose ideas, fancies,
likings, and thoughts all run in the same
channel; there are others, again, who
have to learn to love one another-whose
angularities must be softened- down, and
tastes cultivated in new directions before
they can fairly assimilate. Yet see the
latter class happy in married life quite as
often as the former. Similarity does not
always insure harmony.


Are we expressing our opinion too
freely about these topics? People aosI
get married; they will love and be loved,
and under this extraordinary state OF
things are we asking too much when we
demand the privilege Of free discussion.


We think not; what is your opinion, good
public


MRS. GEORGE WASHINGTON WYLLYs. .