Lo! where it stands, the green life-giving tree,
Mid the pure garden of thy noble faith,
Where thou, unwearied, tread'st the onward path,
And Moses and Elias talk with thee.
Droop we beneath the cloud despondingly,
Thy voice its cheering influence imparts,
And we arise, and, girding up our hearts,
Go forth in hope to win eternity.
Behold! to thee is given a tongue of fire!
Thou speakest wisdom to the ear of youth,
And age takes counsel from thy lip of truth,
And each with trust thy teaching doth inspire.
By this we know the light thou hast divine—
Oh! may our darkened souls new lustre gain from thine!
New-York, Nov., 1843.
Mary E. Hewitt.
[WIDOWS.]
'Desrobbons ici la place d'un conte.'—Montaigne.
Fuller says, in his 'Holy State,' that 'the good widow's grief for her husband, though real is moderate;' and it is our object to illustrate the old divine's text by two famous and most ancient stories; but we would in the first place offer a few remarks upon the species widow.
If widow be derived from the Latin viduus, void, then Mr. Weller the elder's pronunciation, vidder, is the most etymological. We are, however, far from sharing that gentleman's feelings toward those ladies, cleverest of their class. We love widows. We gain by their loss. And the void to us and we fear to them is any thing but an 'aching void.'
In society a Miss is, not to make a pun, amiss. Your sixteens and seventeens are always at sixes and sevens among the men. They are so walled about by what is proper and what is not proper, that they can do nothing but sit bolt upright with their arms folded. Their sitting, walking, riding, dancing, talking, are all carefully graduated to the proper. They start when you speak to them, as a pigeon does when it sees a hawk, and take hold of a man's arm as though he were made of phosphorus; and are bound to look silly, and take refuge under mamma's wings, if the air be tainted by the ghost of a possible impropriety. In Spanish society young ladies are danced with, but never spoken to; but no more of them:
'Non ragionam di lor; ma guarda e passa.'
But a widow, as soon as the becoming sorrow is over, which soon takes place, is always gay, always charming:
'Jeppo. La princesse est reuve, Maffio.
Maf. On le voit bien à sa gaiete.'