Married life is the school in which the most
accomplished artists in this department are found. A delicate
woman is the best instrument; she has such a magnificent compass of
sensibilities! From the deep inward moan which follows pressure on
the great nerves of right, to the sharp cry as the filaments of
taste are struck with a crashing sweep, is a range which no other
instrument possesses. A few exercises on it daily at home fit a
man wonderfully for his habitual labors, and refresh him immensely
as he returns from them. No stranger can get a great many notes of
torture out of a human soul; it takes one that knows it well,--
parent, child, brother, sister, intimate. Be very careful to whom
you give a side-door key; too many have them already.
- You remember the old story of the tender-hearted man, who placed
a frozen viper in his bosom, and was stung by it when it became
thawed? If we take a cold-blooded creature into our bosom, better
that it should sting us and we should die than that its chill
should slowly steal into our hearts; warm it we never can! I have
seen faces of women that were fair to look upon, yet one could see
that the icicles were forming round these women's hearts. I knew
what freezing image lay on the white breasts beneath the laces!
A very simple INTELLECTUAL mechanism answers the necessities of
friendship, and even of the most intimate relations of life.
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