Year: 1861

The Springfield Republican has just com
pleted series of highly interesting ESSAYS.
by Timothy Titcomb, under the title of " Ru-
minations." These articles are already in
the press of Charles Scribner, New York
and will soon make their appearance in q
volume entitled lessons in Life" which
we advise our readers to procure and read
carefully. From the last chapter of the series
we make the following extracts:


There is nothing more common in expert
ence and observation than the partiality felt
by young and unmarried men for the society
OF married women, and the love of unmarried
young women for the society of married men.
| suppose that nearly young man and woman
has time OF feeling that all the desirable
matches in the world are disposed of, and
that the marriageablc young persons loft are
really very lnspid companions This is en-
tirely natural, but exceedingly unreasonable.
TO expect man to be az much OF man
without wife as with one, is just as reasona-
bic as to expect a half-tnished house to be
as beautiful as finished one It is iinposs-
ble for an unmarried man, other things being
equal, to be as agreeable companion rs a
married man; and lest be SUSPECTED Of lest
IN this statement, | wish to assure my reader
that am entirely in earnest Intimate con
tact with the nature OF good woman. in tbc
relation OF marriage, is just.as necessary to
the completeness of manhood, as the details
OF an architectural design are to the homely
convenlenccs around which they are made 70
cluster. Every man is a better man for
having children, and the more he extends
rpln r
life, the more does he open up to culture
and carry to completeness the very choicest
portions of his manly nature. It is natural
therefore, that an unmarried woman shoulI
become possessed of the notion that all the
desirable men arc married, and that the I'm.
married men should be the subjects of a sim.
liar mistake with relation to the other sex
1t must be remembered that men and women
are made desirable by matrimony, and that
half-finishcd work should not be subjected to
any sweeping Judgments


A sermon upon any important subject is
always piece Of unfinished work. / once
heard famous preacher say that he could
preach throughout his whole life on the text.
"thc heart is dccci,ful above all things and
desperately wicked" and even then have
'''''N'''''5 wi w ic StltcI1leIlL Illus
trates the many sidcdness of truth and the
multitude OF its relations to the life of the in
dividual and the world. Any sensible preach
er knows that within the compass of single
sermon he can only present single aspect of
a great and important truth, yet he is criti
cised as if it had been expected that the work
of dozen volumes could be crowded into
the utterances of half an hour. What is
called an exhaustive" sermon would cx
haust an audience long before it would it's
subject A sermon is only the dab of a brusi,
upon great picture, and if gives single
striking view Of a single great truth, it ac-
complishcs its object. 1t must necessarily
be an unfinished piece as regards its expo
sition of truth, and the same may be said Of
any essay on any subject Every writer be-
gins in the middle of things, and leaves off
in the middle of things; and everything he
writes relates at some point to everything
that everybody has written. No man cleans
up the field over which he walks, and leaves
nothing to be said and the best we do is
unfinished work.