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we have to do. We never carry on that thing well by which we are prepossessed and lead,

Male cuncta ministrat
Impetus.

Fire is a bad master, and overheat an ill minister in all things. He who therein employs only his judgment and address, proceeds more cheerfully; he conceals his alarm, he gives way, he defers all things at his ease, according to the necessities of the occasion, he fails in his attempts without trouble and affliction; he always rides bridle in hand. But in him who is drunk with violent and tyrannic intention, we see, of necessity, much imprudence and injustice. The impetuosity of his desire carries him away; these are rash motions, and if fortune does not much resist, of very little fruit. This fire consumes his force; as in precipitation, festinalio tarda est, haste fetters itself. So, for example, in avarice, which has no greater impediment than its own eagerness; the more vigorous it is, the less it rakes together, and commonly sooner grows rich, when disguised in a visor of liberality. "There be who scattereth, yet increaseth."

1 would not that a man should refuse, in the employments he assumes, his attention, pains, eloquence, and his sweat and blood in time of need: Non ipse pro caris amicis

Aut patria, timidus perire.

And for his friend or country's good
Would never fear to spill his blood'

But it is only as a loan, and incidentally; his mind being always in repose and in health, not without action, but without vexation, without passion. To be simply doing, costs him so little, that he acts even sleeping; but he must proceed with discretion; for the body receives the offices imposed upon it, just according to what they are, whereas the mind often extends and makes them heavier at its own expense, giving them what measure it pleases.

THE following curious lines were written some years since by an old gentleman, upon parting with a friend :

I often wished I had a friend,

Dem ich mich anvertrauen kont,
A friend in whom I could confide,
Der mit mir theilte Freud and Leid;
Had I the riches of Girard-

Ich theilte mit ihm Haus und Heerd;

For what is gold? 'tis but a passing metal,
Der Henker hol fur mich den gazen Bettle
Cou'd I purchase the world to live in it alone,
Ich gab dafur, nicht eine hohle Bohn;

I thought one time in you I'd find that friend,
Und glaubte shon mein sehnen hatt ein End;
Alas! your friendship lasted but in sight,
Doch meine grenzet an die Ewigkeit.
Dein ehemaliger lieber alter.

C. G. B.

Geschrieben fur.

L. F. O.

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But happy they, the happiest of their kind!
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate

Their hearts, their fortunes, and their being blend.

WE are much pleased with the taste of the artist in our picture. He represents the Bride preparing for the marriage. Her look is modest and sedate, her decorations pretty, but not foolishly extravagant. Gravity, seriousness, contentment mingled with affectionate anxiety characterize the countenances of the groups around her. The presence and the attitude of the pet dog on the cushion calls up many pleasant associations of the happy family circle which he is about to leave. Her portrait on the parlor wall, in which the more youthful countenances and loosely flowing ringlets show the maiden of earlier life, will remain in its place as a pleasant memorial of a daughter and sister absent but still loved and unforgotten.

It is an important step the fair bride is about to take. We hope she has considered it well; and our prayer is that she may find in him who has won her affections all that a husband ought to be. We cannot better improve for our young friends the opportunity afforded by our embellishment than by giving some beautiful and truthful extracts from sensible writers relating to the marriage scene before us.

THE FORMATION OF THE MARRIAGE UNION.

It must be evident to all, that marriage is a step of incalculable importance, and ought never to be taken without the greatest consideration and the utmost caution. If the duties of this state are so numerous and so weighty, and if the right discharge of these obligations, as well as the happiness of our whole life, and even our safety for eternity, depend, as they necessarily must do, in no small measure upon the choice we make of a husband or wife, then let reason determine with what deliberation we should advance to such a connexion. It is obvious, that no decision of our whole earthly existence requires more of the exercise of a calm judgment than this; and yet observation proves how rarely the judgment is allowed to give counsel, and how generally the imagination and the passions settle the business.

A very great portion of the misery and of the crime with which society is depraved and afflicted, is the result of ill-formed marriages. To use the beautiful language of another, "those who enter the marriage state cast a die of the greatest contingency, and yet of the greatest interest in the world, next to the last throw for eternity. Life or death, felicity or a lasting sorrow, are in the power of marriage. A woman indeed ventures most, for she hath no sanctuary to retire to from an evil husband; she must dwell upon her sorrow, which her own folly hath produced; and she is more under it, because her tormentor hath warrant of prerog

ative, and the woman may complain to God, as subjects do of tyrant princes, but otherwise she hath no appeal in the causes of unkindness. And though THE MAN can run from many hours of sadness, yet he must return to it again; and when he sits among his neighbors, he remembers the objection that lies in his bosom, and he sighs deeply."

PREPARATION FOR MARRIAGE.

It cannot be sufficiently deplored, that all suitable preparation for the marriage state is usually put aside for the busy activities of vanity, which, in fact, are but as dust in the balance of conjugal destiny. Every thought, and anticipation, and anxiety, is so often absorbed in the selection of a house and furniture, and in matters still more insignificant and frivolous. How common is it for a female to spend those hours, day after day, and week after week, in communion with her milliner, debating and discussing the subject of the color, and form, and material, in which she is to shine forth in nuptial splendor, which ought to be employed in meditating the eventful step, which is to fix for life her destiny, and that of her intended husband; as if the great object were to appear a gay and fashionable bride, rather than to be a good and happy wife! But

"Joy, serious and sublime,

Such as doth nerve the energies of prayer,

Should swell the bosom, when a maiden's hand,
Filled with life's dewy flowerets, girdeth on
That harness, which the ministry of Death

Alone unlooseth, but whose fearful power
May stamp the sentence of Eternity.

"Study," said an old author, "the duties of marriage before you enter into it. There are crosses to be borne, there are snares to be avoided, and manifold obligations to be discharged, as well as great felicity to be enjoyed. And should no provision be made? For want of this, result the frequent disappointments of that honorable estate. Hence that repentance which is at once too soon and too late. The husband knows not how to rule; and the wife knows not how to obey."

"Women are not for rule designed,
Nor yet for blind submission. Happy they
Who, while they feel it pleasure to obey,
Have yet a kind companion at their side,
Who in the journey will his power divide,

Or yield the reins, and bid the lady guide;
Then points the wonders of the way, and makes
The duty pleasant that she undertakes:
He shows the objects as they pass along,

And gently rules the movements that are wrong;

He tells her all the skilful driver's art,

And smiles to see how well she acts her part;

Nor praise denies to courage or to skill,
In using power, that he resumes at will."

INEQUALITY IN AGE.

Prudence forbids all unequal marriages. There should be an equality. as near as may be in AGE. How unnatural, how odious is it to see a young man fastened to a piece of antiquity, so as to perplex strangers to determine whether he is living with a wife or a mother! No one will give the woman in the one case, or the man in the other, the credit of marrying for love; and the world will be ill-natured enough, and one can hardly help joining in the censoriousness, to say that such matches

are mere pecuniary speculations; for, generally speaking, the old party in the union is a rich one; and as generally they carry a scourge for the other in their purse. A fortune has often thus been a misfortune for both.

ONLY IN THE LORD.

Marriage should always be formed with a due regard to the dictates of religion. A pious person should not marry any one who is not also pious. It is not desirable to be united to an individual even of a different denomination, and who, as a point of conscience, attends her own place of worship. It is not pleasant on a Sabbath morning to separate, and go one to one place of worship, and the other to another. The most delightful walk that a holy couple can take, is to the house of God in company, and where, in reference to the high themes of redemption and the invisible realities of eternity, they take sweet counsel together. No one would willingly lose this. But, oh, to walk separately in a still more important and dreadful sense! to part at the point where the two roads to eternity branch off, the one to heaven, the other to hell; and for the believer "to travel on to glory, with the awful consciousness, that the other party is journeying to perdition!" This is indeed dreadful, and must of itself occasion no small diminution of conjugal felicity.

If, however, the comfort of the parties only were concerned, it would be a matter of less consequence; but it is a matter of conscience, and an affair in which we have no option. "She is at liberty to marry whom she will," says the apostle, speaking to the case of a widow, "but only in the Lord." Now, though this was said in reference to a female, all the reasons of the law belong with equal force to the other sex. This appears to me to be not only advice, but law, and is as binding upon the conscience as any other law that we find in the word of God; and the incidental manner in which this injunction occurs is, as has been very properly remarked, to the intelligent reader of Scripture, the strongest confirmation of the rule in all cases where marriage is in prospect, and where there has been no engagement previous to conversion.

As to the other passage, where the apostle commauds us not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, it does not apply to marriage, except by inference, but to church fellowship, or rather to association and conduct in general, in reference to which, professing Christians are not to symbolize with unbelievers. But if this be improper in regard to other matters, how much more so in that connexion which has so powerful an influence over our character, as well as our happiness! For a Christian, then, to marry an individual who is not decidedly and evidently a pious person, is a direct opposition to the word of God.

And as Scripture is against it, so also is reason; for "how can two walk together, except they be agreed?" A difference of taste in minor matters is an impediment in the way of domestic comfort; but to be opposed to each other on the all-important subject of religion, is a risk, even as it respects our comfort, which no considerate person should be induced, on any consideration, to incur. How can the higher ends of the domestic constitution be answered, where one of the parents has not the spiritual qualifications necessary for accomplishing them? How can the work of religious education be conducted, and the children be trained in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ?

And as it respects individual and personal assistance iu religious matters, do we not all want helps instead of hindrances? A Christian should make everything bend to religion, but allow religion to bend to nothing. This is the one thing needful, to which everything should be subordinate; and, surely, to place out of consideration the affairs of his eternal salvation, in so important an affair as marriage, shows either that the religion of a person who acts thus is but profession, or likely soon to become so.

No one should contemplate the prospect of such a connexion as marriage without the greatest and most serious deliberation, nor without the most earnest prayer to God for direction. Prayer, however, to be acceptable to the Almighty, should be sincere, and should be presented with a real desire to know and do his will. Many, I believe, act towards the Deity as they do towards their friends; they make up their minds, and then ask to be directed. They have some doubts, and very often strong ones, of the propriety of the step they are about to take, which are gradually dissipated by their supplications, till they have prayed themselves into a conviction that they are quite right in the decision, which they have, in fact, already made.

To pray for direction in an affair which we know to be in opposition to God's word, and on which we are already resolved to act, is adding hypocrisy to rebellion. If there be reason to believe that the individual, who solicits a Christian to unite herself with him in marriage, is not truly pious, what need has she of praying to be directed? This seems like asking the Almighty to be permitted to do that which he has forbidden to be done.

To these truthful sentiments we must add the following beautiful poem of Mr. Poe. In it we see the bride glorified. Where among the poets can anything be found so simple, touching and tender as

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It was many and many a year ago,

In the kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of ANNABEL LEE;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea;

But we loved with a love that was more than love

I and my ANNABEL LEE;

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

My beautiful ANNABEL LEE;

So that her high-born kinsman came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

Went envying her and me

Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my ANNABEL LEE.

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