Year: 1879

, which had overtaken me, she has giveI
} me advice which was the best in th,
circumstances she has removed m,
} from dangers into which was blindly
rushing, and before women of rank
before mobiles and princes, her goot
sense, her replies, and her conduct in
spired universal esteem and compli
ments, which ] knew TO be sincere, were
repeatedly addressed TO me upon hei
merit" And to the end of his life the
philosopher loved and admired his
Therese, as he did in his younger days
when they lived in their Partisan gar.
ret, looking for hours together upon
the pale moon, until the mother.in-law
came upon the scene and broke the
spell. = ,sJsrsssfs asos ol ne


i II certainly appears from the evi'
dencc which VIC possess on the subject
of ch.marriages, that one Of two con-
ditions is necessary in order to secure
abiding domestic comfort. The lady
must be unusually simple or stupid, or
she must be unusually intelligent and
wise. The very habits OF abstraction
and selfstudy of q man of genius led
him frequently and sometimes for long
away from all communion with his
family. Thus it is necessary, in order
to calmly suffer such neglect, to have
an intense sympathy in the work and
with the genius which demands it
such sympathy as we find, for exam
pie, the wife of Niebuhr giving evi.
dence Of on her deathbed. Niebuhr
had never spoken to her of her ap.
preaching death, much as he longed to
receive her parting wishes, because the
physicians forbade all excitement.
Once only few days before her death,
as he was holding her in his arms, he
asked her If there was no pleasure he
could give her, nothing he could do for
her sake. She replied with look of
unutterable love "You will finish
your history whether | live or die"
That was her only desire.


Or, as we have said, failing such no.
bility Of mind, it would appear that
the next best hope Of happiness for the
genius is to be found in the opposite
extreme-that is, perfect humanity Of
simplicity, or in the downright stupid.
ty Of his wife. An example OF this
latter success, more particular and
striking than those we have given is
to be found in the life of one of the
greatest of German authors. He was
subject to fits of the fiercest passion, in
which he denounced his wife "a simple
creature) in torrents of the most tragi-
cal and scathing language. Any wo-
man OF finer sensibility or better edu-
cation must have trembled with terror
6nder such paroxysms Of rage but
this lady listened with calm admira-
ton; she did not understand syllable
OF the speech but the unhesitating
flow of high-sounding words and the
impressive gestures captivated the
mind of the simple woman, and the
torrents Of abuse which should have
overwhelmed her with grief only drew
from her some ingenious expression of
sincere admiration. She was always
under the impression that at these mo-
ments her husband was but rehearsing
to her parts of the play he had just
written and she was no doubt fiat
tered too in her little way with the
role OF critic apparently assigned her.
Obviously, passion which had so en-
tirely missed its mark could not be con-
tinued with any reasonable hope Of
success. Besides, the failure was not
more signal than comical, and il never
tailed to restore the good humor OF the
choleric author.


Now, if we turn to instances in which
men Of great genius have married wo-
men who have been neither distinguish
ed for sense nor the want OF it-whose
mental calber has been of mediocre
lSind--we cannot but be struck with
the frequent unhappiness which has
followed. Such ladies are not foolish
as the term is usually understood I;
they perform the duties which they
imagine belonged to their station, and
they expect the privileges llso which
pertain to it. Thus they make excel
lent partners for our business men,
whose duties and whose pleasures they
understand and generally share. But
il such lady thinks OF uniting herself
to a man of great genius, let her reflect
upon the fate Of her sisters who have
made that experiment. Take first the
experiences of Dryden, our great En-
glish poet, and OF his wife, Lady Eliza
beth. The lady, though belonging to
the aristocracy, and therefore presum.
ably well educated, had no sympathy
with the genius OF her husbands gen
ius that required his retirement so fre.
quently from the family circle she
was, moreover, woman OF violent
temper and of but moderate intelli.
gencc. Dryden had suffered much
from that temper and "his invectives," /"
says Malone, against the married state
were frequent and bitter and were con.
tinued to the latest period Of his life"
And, as Sir Walter Scott gently re.
marks: "His excursions to the coun.
try seem to have been frequent per.
haps the more so as Lady Elizabeth
always remained in town"


Millions unfortunate matrimonial
engagements are well known to all !;
and his "Treaties on Divorce" which
his domestic misfortune stung him into
writing, has been widely perused by
all classes. But in this instance we
can feel less sympathy for the austere
Milton than for that girl of seventeen,
who was brought up in home where
there was plenty of company, and mcr.
riment, and dancing, and who, when
she came TO live with the author OF
paradise Lost" found IL so solitary.
No merriment and dancing in Millions
house, assuredly, but oil studying as II
for their lives--thc great poet reading,
writing, and conversing in dozen or
more different languages, his nephews
struggling hard with two or three. A
veritable mill, this new house Of hers,
from attic TO basement, and the never
ceasing grinding Of verbs and dcclen.
sions plague to ber ears. What
would the poor child not have given
to have ii changed into real mill the
one, for instance, near her home at
Forest Hill, in Oxfordshirc and in.
stead of hearing the valuable opinions
Of Lucretius and Epictctus, and Demos
themes, how her heart would have
thumped with Joy to have heard the
voices Of Tom and Jerry shouting to
tho terriers Some such thoughts the
| young bride must have had, tor alter
few weeks she fed back to her'coun.
try home, promising TO return-some
day--as all children do on the eve Of
their release.


And now, in conclusion may we ven
ture TO ask the youpp Indies who NAV