aspen tree. "I don't know whether you have noticed Miss Barron. "The house may look venerable, but it is n't a hundred years old; and we furnished the drawing-room last summer.' Miss Eliza. "Last spring, Priscilla. Yes, certainly, I should n't have supposed anybody would have admired this furniture for its antiquity." Miss Barron. "I call June summer." Miss Eliza. "So do I; but this room was furnished in May." There was no improvement when the sisters came in. They were hard-featured, angular wo- Another long silence. I gave it up, and determen, with harsh, dull voices, and manners that were mined to wait patiently for one of my hostesses to stiff, but scarcely polished enough to be called speak. I did wait a full quarter of an hour, durformal. They never spoke except in case of ab- ing which both the sisters continued to sit bolt solute necessity, and then said as little as they upright and stare at me. At the expiration of could. As for small talk, only a frantic person this period Miss Eliza volunteered an observation. could have thought of such a thing in their pres- "Did you notice a very curious thing in the ence. Occasionally each contradicted the other, grounds?" said she: "we have an elm tree which and sometimes both at once briefly contradicted grows just like an aspen, and an aspen which is Mr. Barron; and these were the liveliest moments shaped exactly like an elm." of the day. They never argued-they could not Miss Barron remarked that the aspen was cerhave said consecutive words enough for an argu-tainly very like an elm, but she never could see ment; they might rather be said to deal in frag- that the elm had the smallest resemblance to an mentary and detached cavils. When we came into aspen. Miss Eliza said that was particularly the drawing-room after dinner, they both sat down strange. She would not have been surprised if bolt upright upon the sofa, and steadily stared at her sister had not seen the likeness in the aspen ; me. I found I could not bear it, and many and but the elm was really so extraordinary like, that furious were the efforts which I made at conver- she could not understand how anybody could fail sation. Whatever I said Miss Barron doubted, to perceive it. Here the conversation dropped, and Miss Eliza Barron immediately differed from and scarcely anything more was said, till we exher sister, and did not agree with me. One speci- changed our frigid "Good-nights," and departed men I may give: "I (hopelessly,) I have had a to rest. lovely day for my journey.' I believe these were both very good women; Miss Barron (sternly). “Do you call it lovely? they were strongly attached to each other, and inI found it very chilly." Miss Eliza Barron (very tended to be very kind to me. They were charquickly). "Oh! no, not chilly, Priscilla; the ther-itable to the poor, and regular in the performance mometer was above temperate. But certainly it could scarcely be called a lovely day; for there were two showers, and the clouds were very thick in the west." Miss Barron (gloomily). "I don't think there were two showers." Miss Eliza (resolutely). "I counted them." "What a venerable-looking old house this is! I quite admire it. I do love everything that is old-fashioned and quaint; these couches, now, and those tall, narrow mirrors are quite pleasant to my eyes; only one fancies everybody ought to wear hoops and powder here." of their religious duties. They would have nursed each other in illness with devotion, though assuredly not with tenderness, and I do believe that if either had died, the survivor would have found it possible to look graver and say less than before. But, to live with them! I would rather live with three students of the French horn, and a singing master! The Ladies' Work-Table Book; containing clear | lady should possess." And that they will be wiland Practical Instructions in Plain and Fancy ling to do. Needlework, Embroidery, Knitting, Netting, and Crotchet. With numerous Engravings, il lustrative of the various stitches in those useful and fashionable employments. Published by T. B. Peterson, Philadelphia. Redding & Co. Boston. USEFUL and fashionable? O yes: there is knitting-that is useful; we learned to knit. Of the fashionable, there is no doubt. We have had much pleasure in looking over the engravings, which are of the most entertaining kind-and can join in what the printer has said on the cover-“A work every Hints on Public Architecture. By ROBERT Dale WE have received from Mr. Putnam, N. Y., a few sheets of this work as a specimen. They are very beautiful. Mordaunt Hall; or, A September Night. A Novel. Memoirs of my Youth. By A. DE LAMARTINE. Fall of Charles Albert, Literary Character of the British Parliament, 8. Female Poets of America, 9. Story of a Family, Chap. XIV., XV., SHORT ARTICLES.-The Best Friend, 262.-A perity and Progress, 278-New Books, 287. POETRY.-Love never Sleeps, 262. PROSPECTUS. This work is conducted in the spirit of Littell's Museum of Foreign Literature, (which was favorably received by the public for twenty years,) but as it is twice as large, and appears so often, we not only give spirit and freshness to it by many things which were excluded by a month's delay, but while thus extending our scope and gathering a greater and more attractive variety, are able so to increase the solid and substantial part of our literary, historical, and political harvest, as fully to satisfy the wants of the American reader. The elaborate and stately Essays of the Edinburgh, Quarterly, and other Reviews; and Blackwood's noble criticisms on Poetry, his keen political Commentaries, highly wrought Tales, and vivid descriptions of rural and mountain Scenery; and the contributions to Literature, History, and Common Life, by the sagacious Spectator, the sparkling Examiner, the judicious Athenæum, the busy and industrious Literary Gazette, the sensible and comprehensive Britannia, the sober and respectable Christian Observer; these are intermixed with the Military and Naval reminiscences of the United Service, and with the best articles of the Dublin University, New Monthly, Fraser's, Tait's, Ainsworth's, Hood's, and Sporting Magazines, and of Chambers' admirable Journal. We do not consider it beneath our dignity to borrow wit and wisdom from Punch; and, when we think it good enough, make ase of the thunder of The Times. We shall increase our variety by importations from the continent of Europe, and from the new growth of the British colonies. The steamship has brought Europe, Asia and Africa, into our neighborhood; and will greatly multiply our connections, as Merchants, Traveliers, and Politicians, with all parts of the world; so that much more than ever it Newspaper Paragraph, Spectator, Examiner, 274 275 276 277 278 279 Fiscal Paradox; Making Gold, 272.—Pros now becomes every intelligent American to be informed of the condition and changes of foreign countries. And this not only because of their nearer connection with ourselves, but because the nations seem to be hastening, through a rapid process of change, to some new state of things, which the merely political prophet cannot compute or foresee. 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For such as prefer it in that form, the Living Age is put up in monthly parts, containing four or five weekly numbers. In this shape it shows to great advantage in comparison with other works, containing in each part double the matter of any of the quarterlies. But we recommend the weekly numbers, as fresher and fuller of life. Postage on the monthly parts is about 14 cents. The volumes are published quarterly, each volume containing as much matter as a quarterly review gives in eighteen months. WASHINGTON, 27 DEC., 1845. Or all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe and in this country, this has appeared to me to be the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the English language, but this by its immense extent and comprehension includes a portraiture of the human mind the utmost expansion of the present age. J. Q. ADAMS. LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 261.-19 MAY, 1849. From Fraser's Magazine. the marriage-state. That is, the husband is to be LETTER OF ADVICE FROM AN EXPERIENCED in all things supreme, you being virtually the ruler MATRON TO A YOUNG MARRIED LADY. LET other women say what they will, I for my part will ever maintain that a wife should always keep before her mind the very words of the marriage ceremony; and among others, the promise she has made to " love, honor, and obey." This last word, I know, sounds ugly to many of my own sex; but that is entirely from a misapprehension. They suppose it to mean that a wife is to be a slave to her husband. And, to be sure, if you lived in a country of savages, and were fool enough to marry one of them, you might, I admit, be considered as fairly bound by your own act to be his slave; because among savages a wife is so regarded. And so again, if you took an oath of allegiance to the autocrat of Russia, you would make yourself his slave, because such is the Russian constitution. But when we in this country swear allegiance to the king, we do not bind ourselves to take his proclamation for law, but only to obey him according to the constitution and custom of this country. And on the same principle you promise to obey your husband agreeably to the institutions and customs of a civilized country in the nineteenth century. in the wife's proper department, but taking care, as far as possible, that your husband's sanction, and indeed command, should support whatever you do. You are, in your own proper sphere, hie representative, just as a judge represents the king; and you are to show your loyal obedience to him by doing your utmost to enforce compliance with all that he, in your person, shall decree and direct, and to bring him to give his sanction, as he is in duty bound to do, to all your decisions in your own department. And what is the wife's proper department? Evidently her household. Domestic management, almost all would say, belongs to the woman; as the trade or profession, or public business, belongs to the man. By domestic concerns I do not mean merely the office of a housekeeper, but all that relates to home: the servants, the children, social intercourse with friends and neighbors; all this, as well as the house and furniture, and the management of expenditure, belongs to the wife. In the humbler walks of life all people understand this. A carpenter, for instance, or a bricklayer, is reckoned a good husband if he keeps to his chisel or his trowel, works hard all the week, and regularly brings home his earnings to his wife. And it is her business to see that he and "the children are fed and clothed, and lodged as they should be. If he spends part of his earnings at the alehouse, the poor wife may be forced to submit; but she is not bound in duty. On the contrary, if she can scold him or scratch him away from the alehouse, she is bound, in obedience to him, to do so; because she represents him in her own proper department, and is acting by his authority—that is, by the authority of his right reason in opposition to his folly. And if he should stop part of his wages to buy a pair of shoes, without first consulting with her whether he wants them more than she does a new cap, she is to put a stop to this irregular proceeding if she can. He is rebelling against his own lawful authority, which is, in these matters, vested in her. The king, we know, is "in all causes and over all persons, within these his dominions, supreme;" that is, no act of Parliament is valid till it has received the royal assent, and no minister of state, or judge, &c., can hold office except under the king's “sign manual;” but we know, also, that in practice the king never thinks of refusing the royal assent to any bill that has passed both houses of Parliament, however distasteful it may be to him. And whatever papers his ministers put before him, he must sign; else they would not remain in office. And he cannot really appoint any ministers he may fancy; because no man could continue in office who could not command a majority in Parliament. He may, perhaps, sometimes wish his servants, the ministers," at the bottom of the sea, and his "faithful commons" along with them; but still he must do what his ministers bid him, and they must do whatever Parliament insists on. The "royal supremacy" consists, as all the world knows, in this that he is required not only to let | ministers and Parliament do what they please, but also to issue his " royal commands" to that effect. They must act according to their own will, and he must declare it to be his will also, and must back"with all my worldly goods I thee endow ?” it by his authority, even though his own private inclination should be quite another way. Such, as we all know, is our glorious constitution. And somewhat like it is the constitution of OCLXI. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXI. 19 Now it is just the same in all situations in life. Let the physician attend to his patients, and the lawyer to his clients, and the squire receive his rents, &c.; and let each of these confine himself to these his professional duties, and let his wife manage the expenditure of his income in all particulars. What can be plainer than the words, Having once made over all that he has, or ever shall have, to the wife, it is most unfair that he should seek to recall any part of it. And the wife, though she may sometimes be unjustly re sisted, is bound to obey her husband in this most | I know what a distressing duty I am imposing on solemn and deliberate decision of his, to the ut- a being such as woman-naturally submissive, most of her power; and, as far as possible, to control the whole expenditure of her husband's income. I meek, complying. Nothing but a strong sense of duty can induce you to do such violence to your nature as to accept, and even assume, the office of guiding and controlling such a (comparatively) coarse animal as a man; but your duty to him requires it. And even when he is disposed to resist the control which he ought to submit to, you must stoop to all means of inducing him to comply, partially, if not entirely. There are exceptions to every general rule. have known men who had a great turn for ordering dinner, and ladies who had an aversion to it. And I have known a woman who could manage a farm, or decide a law-question, better than her husband, and whose husband was willing so to employ her. But these cases are like that of the But even men themselves may supply you Amazons, where the women went to war and the with examples to rouse your emulation, and inmen sat at home and spun. As a general rule, duce you to make some sacrifice to duty. Do you we know that men have, by nature, a superiority not see men (selfish as we know man is compared in strength, which enables them to go through to woman) consenting to be ministers of state? labors and dangers, mental as well as bodily, from They undertake the laborious task of providing which females should be exempt; and that by edu- for the good government of the country; they cation they are qualified for exercising the several bear being reproached, instead of thanked for it; trades or professions by which they are to maintain it takes them sometimes several hours, or days, of their families. On the other hand, women are alternate coaxing and threatening to induce the endowed (besides all the graces and amiabilities king to issue his "royal commands" to them to of the sex) with a great superiority of quickness, do what they judge best, and which he utterly tact, and delicate discernment, in all the every-day dislikes; and they make long speeches in Parliaaffairs of life. In all these, therefore, the hus-ment, and use every kind of manœuvre to get a band ought to be completely guided by his wife. bill passed for their country's good; and all be And this shows the wisdom of our ancestors in cause they know that the country could not be making the husband "endow with all his worldly well governed without them. goods" the wife he has chosen. The wife is dependent on the husband, and clings to him for support, just as a hop-plant climbs on its pole, and a sweet-pea on the sticks put to support it, and as the vine in Italy was, according to the language of the poets," married to the elm." But if you could conceive a hop-pole, or a pea-stick, or an elm, imagining that those plants were put there on purpose for its adornment, you would tell them that this was quite a mistake—that the climbers are cultivated for their flowers or fruit, and that the stakes or trees are placed their merely for their sake, and must not claim any superior dignity or worth over the plants they support. Now just such is the office of the husband. And this state of things is what people approach to more and more in proportion as they advance in civilization. Among mere savages the wife is made to yield to brute force, and is a mere drudge. In barbarian countries women are shut up; in more civilized they are left free, and have more control. And in dear England, the glory of all nations, they have a higher place, proverbially, than anywhere else. It is your business to keep up the honor of your sex, by keeping your husband's baser part (what he is sometimes disposed to call " himself") in due subjection to his better part, his wife. How far you will be able to succeed in this, must depend partly on the disposition-the tameableness of the person to whom you are united. But you are bound, in dutiful obedience to your husband—that is, to the marriage constitution-to the compound being called man-and-wife, of which he is the ostensible, and you the virtual guide-to come as near to this state of things as you are able. All this should inspire you with emulation. You should consider that no exertion is too great to enable you to make your superior judgment available in the service of your husband, even though he should be so stupid as not to perceive the benefit. For, after all, you will, perhaps, not be able to succeed completely. Some husbands are given to insist on interfering in the expenditure of income, the management of children and of servants, and other domestic concerns. But you must do the best you can, always remembering that every shilling your husband spends without your leave is downright robbery, though you may be obliged to submit to it; and that whatever household control he assumes is an act of usurpation-the worst kind of usurpation, just as many account suicide the worst kind of murder for it is rebellion against himself, you being in your own department his representative, and invested with all his authority. Husbands must be managed according to their dispositions. There is no one kind of treatment that will suit all alike. You must try the mode you think most likely to suit your own husband's character, and if that does not succeed, try another. But it is much better if you can hit on the right system at once, than to have to make a change. In particular, the imperious mode-the straightforward, determined assumption of authoritywhich succeeds very well with some meek-spirited men, and is the only plan with some cowardly ones, is a very dangerous course if it does fail. A man whom his wife has attempted to bully, and without success, is apt to become totally unmanageable by all methods afterwards. And the same may be said of scolding. It succeeds admi- | stances, or for whatever reason, he has opened a rably with some men; but when it does not suc- letter to you, though he might know it to be a ceed, it weakens the wife's influence. Generally speaking, therefore, I should recommend gentle means to begin with; and harsher modes to be resorted to afterwards if the former fail. Many men are governed by their affections. For though a man is a very unfeeling, hardhearted animal, compared with one of us, still there are many of them that have affection enough to be ruled through the means of that. And though they are generally too unfeeling to shed tears themselves, except on very rare occasions, it is well worth trying whether a man may not be softened by his wife's tears when he is disposed to be refractory. But take care not to wear it out. To be always crying on very slight occasions, may so accustom a man to the sight that his heart will become (as Dickens expresses it) quite water-proof. tradesman's bill that he was to pay, let him have no peace day or night for some time. But, on the other hand, you have a perfect right to see all his letters, because there is always a likelihood that they may relate to domestic matters, which are your province. I know there are husbands so unreasonable that they absolutely will not allow this, and then you must e'en yield to brute force. Nor would I say that it is worth while, if your husband is very resolute on this point, to risk a quarrel about it. Only remember what your rights are, and enforce them when you can. I would recommend you, however, not to mention to others that you open his letters; but on the contrary, flatly deny, both to them and to him, that you ever do so. If he should particularize to you some instance of it, you can find some reason why it was necessary in that particular instance, which is the only one that ever occurred. All the other instances you must remember to forget en Perseverance, again, will succeed with some men when nothing else will. I have known men, who could stand coaxing, and scolding, and weep-tirely. ing, fairly wearied out by incessant importunity, just as many people are bothered into giving to a beggar. I would have you try the other ways first; but, if everything else fails, it is worth trying whether a man may not be wearied out, so as to give way merely for the sake of hearing no more about it. One point there is in which many husbands are particularly apt to encroach-the management and control of the children. I have known a man act as if he really thought the children belonged to the father as much as to the mother. And yet what a mere nothing is the love, and care, and anxiety of a father, compared with that of a But in all cases I strongly recommend you mother! And how incomparably inferior is a never openly to claim power, nor to boast of gov- man's judgment to a woman's in all that relates to erning your husband, either to him or to any the care and education of children! All this you one else. You may sometimes, like the dog in must take due care to impress on your children, the fable, miss the substance by catching at the lest they should make the mistake of feeling a disshadow. And, at any rate, it has a bad appear-proportionate—that is, an equal-degree of regard ance in most people's eyes. for their father. In order to impress this wholeYour glory should be, not only to take care some lesson the more fully both on them and him, that your husband should do what he ought, but you should take care to let most of the indulgences that he should be compelled to confess that it is and gratifications appear to proceed from you, and his own choice. It is glorious to represent your- the restraints, and privations, and punishments self as submitting with angelic meekness to the from him. "Papa won't allow this,” and “Papa imperious sway of your lord, when in reality you insists on so and so," even when it is your own have prevailed on him to give way, and to be will that they are required to comply with. And guided by your better judgment to do just what you if ever he is disposed to censure or complain of think best. When you have prevailed on him to any of the children, or to deny or forbid them anybuy you a smart dress, which in heart he grudges, thing, do you make your appearance as intercessor or to set up his carriage, or to change his resi- in the child's presence, so as to present an agreedence, or to cut an old acquaintance, or to changeable contrast to him. Should he venture to his name, or to frequent parties which he detests, remonstrate against this, or, indeed, to remon&c., you should whisper to all your friends, as a great secret, that Mr. would have it so, and that, though you said all you could to persuade him to the contrary, finding him bent upon it, you felt it your duty to comply. And if ever he should protest against your saying this, do not scruple to contradict him most vehemently, and to insist on it that you merely yielded to his wishes; which, after all, is, as I have already explained, quite true, since in these matters your will is to be considered as his. strate on any point in the presence of the children, you should complain bitterly of the cruelty of finding fault with you before your own children. And take care to do this before them; that is, to do what would be the very thing you are censuring, if the children were to be considered as his no less than yours. Nothing will more effectually impress on their minds that it is not so, and that the children are the rightful property of the mother. With servants I don't think it advisable to go I may as well mention, by the way, that letters quite so far; only let them all understand that it either to or from you, are perfectly sacred from a is to you they must look for directions as to all husband's eye. And if ever, under any circum- they are to do. And as for his dismissing, or en |