Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Beatrice.
third little girl has had the chicken pox—a very serious case indeed , but my dear Dr . Bolus says she Avill pull through . " Oh , talk of the British nursery—hoAV much better woidd it be if they AA'ere all relegated to their own proper abiding home by day and by night ! But as there are two sides to almost eA'ery question , there are tAvo sides certainly to this , and I don't affect to ] sy doAvn the law , not being even a " Monthly Nurse , " and knoAving nothing of the subject en grand , or en petit , except by " observation , " perhaps , happily , at a long and a safe distance !
At Cayley , howeA'er , things took a different turn , and there came upon us what is called at the German Baths a " crise , " to be followed if by shght " feA'erish symptoms , " yet by after tranquillity , ancl a successful " Kur . " Those of us Avho have ever loitered tmter den Linden at pleasant Kissingen , or been at Marienbad , or ScliAvalbach , or Hombiirg , or Wiesbaden , or countless other resorts of health ancl treatment , will endorse all that I can say in this respect . Young men are said to be " great " Avhen in
geese love , and a lover ' s follies as Avell as a lover ' s rhapsodies have received the commemoration of poets , ancl encountered thescom of satirists , in . all ages more or less . But S you want true lolly and AA'eakaess combined , commend me to an " old boy " inloA'e !
He . forgets in the first place his OAVU age ancl , aboA'e all , the age of her Avhoin ho has persuaded hhnself Avill do A'ery Avell as Mrs . Pidginton . He may be a confirmed bachelor , or a sentimental AvidoAver , but it matters nothing . He is in loA r e , arid he makes a great " anser " of . himself accordingly . He cannot understand that " puss " means anything , or that a young girl , budding and-blossoming into pleasant Avomanhood , may reasonably look for congenial age , tastes , habits , and amusement .
On the contrary , he rather leans to the idea that she Avas made solely for him , and therefore he sets , to Avork at once to keep at a distance all younger rivals , by the assiduity of his attentions , and , -if he has a liberal mind , ( AA'hich some haA'e not , ) by the profuseness of his presents . He deprecates all companions AA'I IO keep up AA'hat he likes to term the " giddy and unreflecting frivolity of youth , " forgetting—dyspeptic ancl be-Avigged Diogenes as he is—that " youth is youth , " that " age is age , " and that January
and May neA'er have truly consorted , except in A'ery feAV instances indeed , and Avhich we may count upon our fingers , as Avell in the history of the world as in our more limited domestic and personal experience . They are , we submit , exceptions to the general law of life and of domestic happiness , ancl the true onward progress of society . No doubt if Avealth or position alone could make people happy here , if three per cent , consols were everythingif late Avas not a " sine non" if a magnificent trousseau
, p qua , Avas reall y the height of feminine happiness , ancl the existence of daily life amid the ease and-luxury and heat of AA'ealth all we need look to , a good deal might fairl y be said for any such proposition as made a AA-ealthy marriage , independently of age , or . taste , or sympath y , all that Ave could wish for IIOAV . But , as AA'e ICIIOAV , siich is not , never has been , never Avill be the case .
AU these things at the best are but transitory , uncertain , vain shadoAvs , ' Avhich fall on our horizon of life for a little , often only to pass au'ay . Gleams , if you like , of golden-tinted brightness , which are often exchanged for " clouds ancl thick darkness . " If it be true that ^ impecunious love" is a great mistake in itself ( as no doubt it is ) , and a nuisance to jour friends ( Avhich Ave all know it to be ) , on the other hand , what can we say of good ° r as commendable of that loA'e Avhose hi ghest emotion is " squared " by a large income , a good jointure , diamonds and an opera box , a seat in the country , ancl a fashionable
nouse in London ? Amid all these outer and perishing things , there is a little voice and d'ffi u Slt ° ° WlR be ieard ' a visitor somewIlat imruly in his habits and somewhat jumcult to control 1 And that visitor is , as a great statesman has Avritten it in a German we tale of old , " The Heart . Yes , that mysterious organization , physical formation , Physiological abstraction , functional reality , caU it what you will , will be considered , 1 W f *? e OTerlooked in all these complex arrangements , will assert itself , Avill be wci , and it stifled or silenced now , will speak hereafter with ten-fold poAver , and with uitenser meaning .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Beatrice.
third little girl has had the chicken pox—a very serious case indeed , but my dear Dr . Bolus says she Avill pull through . " Oh , talk of the British nursery—hoAV much better woidd it be if they AA'ere all relegated to their own proper abiding home by day and by night ! But as there are two sides to almost eA'ery question , there are tAvo sides certainly to this , and I don't affect to ] sy doAvn the law , not being even a " Monthly Nurse , " and knoAving nothing of the subject en grand , or en petit , except by " observation , " perhaps , happily , at a long and a safe distance !
At Cayley , howeA'er , things took a different turn , and there came upon us what is called at the German Baths a " crise , " to be followed if by shght " feA'erish symptoms , " yet by after tranquillity , ancl a successful " Kur . " Those of us Avho have ever loitered tmter den Linden at pleasant Kissingen , or been at Marienbad , or ScliAvalbach , or Hombiirg , or Wiesbaden , or countless other resorts of health ancl treatment , will endorse all that I can say in this respect . Young men are said to be " great " Avhen in
geese love , and a lover ' s follies as Avell as a lover ' s rhapsodies have received the commemoration of poets , ancl encountered thescom of satirists , in . all ages more or less . But S you want true lolly and AA'eakaess combined , commend me to an " old boy " inloA'e !
He . forgets in the first place his OAVU age ancl , aboA'e all , the age of her Avhoin ho has persuaded hhnself Avill do A'ery Avell as Mrs . Pidginton . He may be a confirmed bachelor , or a sentimental AvidoAver , but it matters nothing . He is in loA r e , arid he makes a great " anser " of . himself accordingly . He cannot understand that " puss " means anything , or that a young girl , budding and-blossoming into pleasant Avomanhood , may reasonably look for congenial age , tastes , habits , and amusement .
On the contrary , he rather leans to the idea that she Avas made solely for him , and therefore he sets , to Avork at once to keep at a distance all younger rivals , by the assiduity of his attentions , and , -if he has a liberal mind , ( AA'hich some haA'e not , ) by the profuseness of his presents . He deprecates all companions AA'I IO keep up AA'hat he likes to term the " giddy and unreflecting frivolity of youth , " forgetting—dyspeptic ancl be-Avigged Diogenes as he is—that " youth is youth , " that " age is age , " and that January
and May neA'er have truly consorted , except in A'ery feAV instances indeed , and Avhich we may count upon our fingers , as Avell in the history of the world as in our more limited domestic and personal experience . They are , we submit , exceptions to the general law of life and of domestic happiness , ancl the true onward progress of society . No doubt if Avealth or position alone could make people happy here , if three per cent , consols were everythingif late Avas not a " sine non" if a magnificent trousseau
, p qua , Avas reall y the height of feminine happiness , ancl the existence of daily life amid the ease and-luxury and heat of AA'ealth all we need look to , a good deal might fairl y be said for any such proposition as made a AA-ealthy marriage , independently of age , or . taste , or sympath y , all that Ave could wish for IIOAV . But , as AA'e ICIIOAV , siich is not , never has been , never Avill be the case .
AU these things at the best are but transitory , uncertain , vain shadoAvs , ' Avhich fall on our horizon of life for a little , often only to pass au'ay . Gleams , if you like , of golden-tinted brightness , which are often exchanged for " clouds ancl thick darkness . " If it be true that ^ impecunious love" is a great mistake in itself ( as no doubt it is ) , and a nuisance to jour friends ( Avhich Ave all know it to be ) , on the other hand , what can we say of good ° r as commendable of that loA'e Avhose hi ghest emotion is " squared " by a large income , a good jointure , diamonds and an opera box , a seat in the country , ancl a fashionable
nouse in London ? Amid all these outer and perishing things , there is a little voice and d'ffi u Slt ° ° WlR be ieard ' a visitor somewIlat imruly in his habits and somewhat jumcult to control 1 And that visitor is , as a great statesman has Avritten it in a German we tale of old , " The Heart . Yes , that mysterious organization , physical formation , Physiological abstraction , functional reality , caU it what you will , will be considered , 1 W f *? e OTerlooked in all these complex arrangements , will assert itself , Avill be wci , and it stifled or silenced now , will speak hereafter with ten-fold poAver , and with uitenser meaning .