Year: 1864

Women and Marriage.


have speculated a great deal upon mat
rimonY. l have seen young and beautiful
women, the pride Of the gay circles, II ar
ried-as the world goes-we!l! Some have
moved into costly houses, and their friends
have all come and looked at their fine furni.
ture and splendid arrangements for happi-
ness, and they have gone away and com
mitted them to their sunny hopes, cheer
fully and without fear. 1t is natural to be
sanguine for the young, and at such times
| am carried away by similar feelings.
love to get, unobserved, into corner and
watch the bride in her white attire, and
with her smiling face and soft eyes moving
before me in the pride OF her life, weave a
waking dream Of her future happiness, and
persuade myself that it will be true.
think how they will set upon the luXu
RANT sofa as the twilight falls, and build
gay hopes, and murmur in low tones the
now unforbidden tenderness, and how thrill


ing the allowed kisses and beautiful endear.
ments Of welded life will make even their
parting joyous, and how gladly they will
come back from the crowd and the empty
mirth, aud of the gay, to each others quiet





creature, who bushes even now at his hesi-
tating caresses, listing eagerly for his foot
steps as the night steals on, and wishing
that he would come; and when he enters
at last, and with an affection as undying
as his pulse, folds her to his bosom, | can
feel the very tide that goes flowing through
his heart, and gaze with him on her grace
ful form as she moves about him for the
kind offices Of affection, soothing all his
his unquiet cares and making HIM forget
even himself in her young and unshadowed
beauty.


60 forward for years and see her luxu-
rious hair put soberly away from her brow,
and her girlish graces ripening into dignity,
and bright loveliness chastened into atfec-
ton. Her husband looks on her with
proud eye, and shows her the same lervent
love and delicate attentions that first won
her; ard fair children have grown up about
them, and they 60 on full Of honor and un-
troubled years, and are remembered when
they die. I say love to dream thus when
| go to give the young bride joy. 1t is the
natural tendency and feeling touched by
loveliness that fears nothing for itself; and
if ever yield to darker feeling it is because
the light of the picture is changed. am
not fond Of dwelling upon such changes,
and will not minutely now. allude to
it only because trust that my simple page
will be read by some Of the young and
beautiful beings who move daily across my
glide by joyously and confidently the secret
of an unclouded future.


The picture have drawn above is not
peculiar. 1t is colored, like The fancies of
the bride; and many, oh! many an hour
will she sit, with her rich jewels lying loose
in her fingers, and dream such dreams as
these. She believes them, too-and she
goes on for a while undeceived. The even
ings are not too long when they talk Of plans
of happiness, and the quiet meal is still
pleasant, with delightful novelty Of mutual
reliance and attention. There comes soon,
however, time when personal topics be.
come bare and wearisome, and slight atten-
tons will not alone keep up the social eX,
element There are intervals of silence
and detected symptoms of weariness, and
the husband first, in his manhood, breaks
in upon the hours they were to spend to.
gether. | cannot follow 1t circumstantially.
There come long hours Of restlessness, and
terrible misgivngs Of each others worth
and affection, until, by and by, they can
conceal their uneasineSs no longer, and 60
out separately to seek relief, and lean upon
a hollow world for support, which one, who
was their lover and friend, could net give
them!


Heed this, ye who are winning, by your
innocent beauty, the affections of high
minded and thinking beings. Remember
that he will give up the brother of bis heart,
with whom he has had ever a fellowship of
mind; the society of his temporary run
ners in the race Of fame, who have held
quently in his passionate love he will break
away from the arena of his burning ambi.
ton, 10 come and listen to the "voice of the
charmer." 1t will bewilder him at first,
but it will not long; and then, think you,
that an idle Establishment will claim the
mind that has been used for years to an
equal communion? Think you that he will
give up for weak dalliance the animating
themes of mer and the search into the mys.
teries Of knowledge? Oh, no, lady believe
memo! Trust not your influence to such
light fetters! Credit not the old fashioned
absurdity that woman's is secondary lot
-mnistefing to the necessities of her lord
and master. 1t is higher destiay would
award you. If your Immortality is as
complete and your gift of mind is as ca
pable as ours, | would charge you to water
the undying bud, and give yourself a
healthy culture, and open its beauty to the
sun, and then you may hope that when
your life is bound with another, you may
go on equally and with a fellowship that
shall pervade every earthly interest
Washington hpi"g.