Visit to a New-Married Couple. 55 All the became the subject of every body's respect and attention. decrepid and aged poor were seated together, with each a new coat or gown, and a table fully spread before them. My friend led his bride up to them, and said, 'Here, my old friends, I have brought you a benefactress, who I am sure will never forget how much you want her assistance.' I think, the many blessings they uttered was the most grateful incense I ever heard from poor creatures, whose lot in life had been so severe, whose days, so near their close, could promise so little enjoyment: both the attending spirit and recording angel must have glowed with pride, as they wrote down such a scene; even the bride appeared to feel sensibly the kindness of their benefactor. 'Poor creatures,' she said, 'they smiled as if they had been little used to it.' I seized the moment to say, 'What an inestimable man has united your happiness with his own! never let him repent his choice.' "We found at our return to the house music and every preparation for a dance; the bride was led to the top of the room, and whilst all the little bustle of choosing partners and places was going on, she complained of sudden fatigue, and could not possibly dance one step. Every possible attention was paid to her by all the guests and by her husband. She was laid upon a sofa, covered with a shawl, and requested to say when the dancing or the music would be too much for her. The ball went on, and at the close of every dance her husband anxiously inquired for her. "She had time for reflection, and I conceived the gaiety of the scene would have secured the company the remainder of the evening from any of her whims; but bad habits are not so easily corrected, and she seemed to have gained fresh powers of tormenting by the interval of quiet; the tunes were the very ugliest she had ever heard, and certainly the most noisy; she supposed such heavy old floors had no spring in them, she never heard such a grating of feet; perhaps it was owing to want of chalking: the effect was dreadful, let the cause be what it would; it had quite distracted her head, and tore her nerves in a thousand pieces. "The dance of course was shortened, and an elegant supper succeed. ed, and every body recommended, as the best possible cure for both head and nerves, to be quite at rest in bed; but they were all mistaken, for eating a hearty supper was the best possible remedy for both, and what she always found much more beneficial than any thing else. "She was no sooner seated at the head of her table, than, turning to a gentleman who sat by her, she said, 'Do you like these rural sports?' with an emphasis upon you, that gave her own opinion as freely as if she had expressed it. 'Indeed I do,' he replied; I am a great admirer of the country; I delight in the beauties of Nature, and am never tired of contemplating their unspeakable variety; it elevates the mind, and engages its highest and best affections.' 'I am passionately fond of London,' she said. 'So am I, madam; and so must every body be who knows the value of its innumerable advantages: but the preference of a country or city life can never be sufficiently estimated but by those who enjoy them both. The fine fresh breeze of an early sunshine morning,' he said with a smile, 'requires a great deal in the London scale to weigh it down; it awakens the heart to universal benevolence.' "Oh, pray add a cow to your common, and a goose on your green.' Very pretty objects too,' he replied, "if you feel that gaiety and gratitude which every appearance of Nature gives to those who do not disdain it.' I disdain every thing that does not amuse my fancy, or improve my understanding. My dear madam,' he replied, they can contribute to both; when you see a cow, you may picture to yourself" the milk-maid singing blithe;" recollect the cream, the custard, and the cheese that supports the peasant, ornaments your table, and helps to support mine.' 'A very good advocate for a cow!' she said with some scorn; perhaps you could plead too in favor of a goose ?" 'Most assuredly,' he said; it was an excellent savoury bird at Michaelmas. Custom, in gratitude for the use of its quills, which were infinitely extensive, had given one day in the year (as a memorial of its worth) to all ranks in the community, under the severe penalty of wanting money every other day in it, if they omitted the proper respect to such a distinguished bird.' Supposing then, my dear,' addressing herself to her husband, 'I am drawn in the picture you proposed, upon a common; a cow will be a pretty object in the back-ground, caressing a goose, as a bird of the highest possible pretension, will give stuck up with a pleasing interest to the piece, and make a good group, the family portraits, that I do not doubt represent great admirers of the country. "Oh,' exclaimed Fanny, 'how could she be so rude and so cruel ? did nobody put her in mind that her husband was too kind and too good There was a total silence, as if every body felt to be so treated?' with horror her unguarded incivility. The attention of the company was now directed to a gentleman who sung remarkably well, and prevented the lady from obtruding her sarcastic remarks for the remainder of the evening.' Fanny said, she could not express how much she disliked her; but she hoped, when she reviewed upon her pillow her conduct of the day, she would be very sorry, and be more upon her guard for the future. Aye, my dear Fanny,' replied her friend, if she had been bred up in such habits, we might rely upon her improveshall determine for her what her reflections could be ment; but you upon her pillow by her conduct the next morning. As most of the company remained at the Castle, they proposed, after breakiast, to see the fine collection of pictures for which it was celebrated. strument. "When they reached the room where the locked harpsichord had been the day before, it had given place to a most splendid modern inThe bride was led to it by her husband, who hoped it would be a perpetual source of amusement to her. It is not Kirkman's, I hope,' she said; for his never keep in tune. But you are very good, love; and Favor me with one air, if I was in a humor to play, I would try it.' that if you should not like its tones, I may change it: I bought it on those terms.' 'Oh, I could not play so soon after breakfast for millions; besides, I see it is Kirkman's.' A young lady, who said she always played immediately after breakfast, obliged the company with some plaintive airs, that suited the idea of succeeding to the once admired Visit to a New-Married Couple. 6 57 and beloved musician now no more. Every body admired the instru. ment. I hope, my dear, you like it,' said her attentive husband, with an anxious smile. O no, I don't indeed,' she replied; and I request as a favor that I may have the old melancholy ditty back again.' 'Never, my dear,' he replied, and walked away. Aye,' she provokingly said, I see already what it is to be a wife,' and sighed deep with vexation. "I immediately took my leave, ashamed to witness such perverse. ness, and had the mortification to hear her say, as I left the room, ‘I shall never play upon that instrument as long as I live?' 'Oh,' said Fanny, what will that poor gentleman do with such a wife?' 'It is many a gentleman's fate, my dear: and one of the certain consequences will be the entire loss of his affection, and of course of his society; he will soon find various occasions to be absent; he will dread to return to such caprice; and when she finds herself quite deserted, it will be no balsam to her wounded pride that she inflicted it upon herself. "Affection is of an extremely delicate nature: like the butterfly, left to wing its way with playful freedom upon zephyrs of its choice, how airy and unrestrained it flies! but when you would trammel or restrain it, its spirit and its beauty are gone. From neglect of little civilities in the common occurrences of life, much of the contempt and ridicule bestowed upon matrimony derives its source. If ever you marry, Fanny, take care never to be deficient in those trifling attentions, which, appearing to be of little consequence, make up much of the domestic harmony of life.' 'Is it always the lady's fault?' asked the artless girl. By no means, my dear. If a woman is so unfor. tunate as to marry a churlish man, he fancies it disgraceful to himself to attend to his wife in company; and I have seen a young and beautiful woman, in the first month of her marriage, totally neglected by her husband. “A man never appears to more advantage than when paying attention to his wife; at least she might have a small part of what he distributes to the rest of the company; it is a proper compliment to his own taste and judgement, gives her importance in herself, which she is sure to use to his advantage. Some gentlemen have no name by which to call their wives, have never been heard to mention any other than you, by which she is to understand herself; and you may judge what feelings are conveyed with the sound. And, strange to say! you may meet married people who never by any chance speak a word to each other.' It must be very hard,' said Fanny, 'to make a good wife.' 'I believe it is the best plan not to marry at all.' "I do not advise that, my dear, because the idea is most unfairly attached to a single life, that you were not qualified for the duties of a married one. Every half-bred man laughs at the state; and many mistaken women, to avoid the ridicule, marry hastily, and find too late, that to escape a fancied ill, they have incurred a lasting misery.' 'What is to be done then?' said Fanny. Why, my dear girl, qualify yourself, not by superior accomplishments, playing, singing, and dancing better than your acquaintance, or other such frivolous pursuits; but correcting and regulating your temper, practising patience and forbearance in all the little trials you meet with, occurring in the best regulated and most happy families. Improve your heart and your understanding, cultivate an obliging readiness to please in all your habits, feel a universal indulgence to other's failings, and a watchful eye over your own; acquire a constant habit of cheerfulness and good humor, and you will stand a fair chance of being long loved and admired; remembering never to marry under any circumstances, unless you respect the understanding and conduct of the man, even though he were prince." a We do not know the author of the following beautiful lines,-but think we have seen them ascribed to Brainard. I SAW TWO CLOUDS AT MORNING. I saw two clouds at morning, And in the dawn they floated on, I thought that morning cloud was blest, I saw two summer currents Flow smoothly to their meeting, And join their course, with silent force, Calm was their course through banks of green, Such be your gentle motion, Till life's last pulse shall beat; Like summer's beam, and summer's stream, Float on, in joy, to meet A calmer sea, where storms shall coase- FALSE VIEWS OF THE ROMANCE OF MARRIED LIFE. TO YOUNG LADIES. We do not mean to confine our efforts strictly to maternal and conjugal duties. Our field is the little world of home-and our interest extends to all that it encircles. One of the most interesting periods in this world, lies between childhood and the assumption of the above named duties as householders and heads of families. None have a stronger title to the privileges of home, than the class of youth, buoy. ant with the happiness that is, and still more so with the fancied anti False Views of the Romance of Married Life. 59 cipation of all which is to come. There is something so contagious in happiness, that those whose years have received the yellow-leaf tinge, are cheated into a smile as these radiant children of hope and joyful expectation pass before them. "When the eye seeth them, then it blesseth them." The sun of their happiness by reflection gilds with bright hues the shades of winter and sorrow. It is not therefore to dampen or destroy this happiness, that the young are so often cautioned to remember the days of darkness, that shall be many ;—but to prethem in a measure for the disappointments of life, by tempering their extravagant expectations with caution and sobriety. pare A great part of the education of young ladies, is illy calculated to give them correct views of life. It is too poetical-too visionary they are allowed too much solitude, where they can indulge reverie and live in an ideal world of their own, invested with artificial perfection. Were they more with their mothers as companions and confi dents, learning more of the actual duties and trials of life, they would be better prepared to encounter them. In nothing is this habit of visionary extravagance carried to greater excess than in the views entertained of the romance of married life. Many profess not to indulge these views-and by looking at some of the signal trials of life in the abstract, really believe themselves converted on this point:-but like a favorite sin, the mischief hides in the heart still. We do not mean to represent life as an ungarnished and homely thing. The romance we condemn is something altogether unreal; a sort of fairy-land penciling:-such as by shutting our eyes on all around us we may picture forth in a gilded day-dream; but which would need all the Genii of old Arabia to help us out with. Now we dare appeal to those of our young friends, at all tinctured with poetic enthusiasm, and ask, is it not so? They never mean to live as any one else has lived. All the evils and trials of life shall in their case be avoided or magically disposed of. They are perpetually springing over the bogs of the present time, in chase of an ignis fatuus before them. Now the harm does not consist in setting the standard too high; but in forgetting the nature of human life. It is full of trouble! Alloy will come-out of the bustle of life-out of the cares of time and sense. We shall ever carry with us imperfections, infirmities, weariness, satiety. "The sun-bright spots on life's dark stream" are few. But we would not make the picture too dark-and in turning to the bright side, would first call attention to the happiness that is overlooked, in the search for something greater. We must measure the future by the present: "No happier let us hope to find We shall then be prepared to improve all the happiness of to-day, with a thankful heart; and if greater comes to-morrow, instead of dis. appointment it will make rich, and add no sorrow therewith. One of the strongest arguments for the married relation is found in the trials to which we as human beings, are subject. This is too cold and stormy |