established by two powers; part of them by a messenger of benevolence, and part by a destroying angel. So strangely are they combined. There is one side on which sensuality has sadly soiled the purity of love in New England; and it is a vice to which our youth have been tempted by an unfortunate system of manners. I can explain it best by a quotation from Shakspeare. When Ferdinand is breathing out the ardor of his love to Miranda, the poet makes her father say—and may the spirit of the lines thrill through the hearts of all our rustic youth! Then as my gift and thine own acquisition This has been, and is, a needed lesson in New England; and I am afraid that thousands have found the imprecation verified in their after-experience. For how can the man esteem the wife whom he has found and made frail; and who can never point to the register of his family births without confusion and shame! For this common fault, I have no hesitation in saying, that a large part of the blame lights on parents. It is well known, that at a late hour of night, our bodies and minds undergo a change. Those hours nature designed for sleep; and if we steal them from their purpose, they are apt to be devoted to criminal dreams. To turn, therefore, an inexperienced pair, warm with youth, blind with passion, into a dark room, at a late hour, unguarded and alone-nay even to do worse!! (for the charges of the Quarterly Review, are supported by one of Mr. Edwards's sermons. See sermon on Genesis, xxxix. 12.) what can you expect? Why just the result that our history has disclosed; a result which has made us a scorn to other nations and a confusion to ourselves! The time of courtship is an important season. Then the parties are to learn each other's character, adjust themselves to each other's habits, and to suffer those affections to ripen into esteem, which are to form their happiness in future life. Let it be a period of warmth; (and passion, if you please ;) but let it be also, tempered with the strictest purity. No man can imagine, until taught by experience, how much the virtue of chastity rises in importance, when he sees his own daughters grow up around him. In all such cases, he wishes to have his lessons seconded by his own pure example. These pages teach no ascetic doctrine. I could wish the intercourse of our youth to be free without concerns. being licentious. The rose is never sweeter, than when it waves its beauty on the flexile bush, wagging its head in the breeze, unbent by art, and moving in all the original freedom and simplicity of nature. But I am a determined enemy of late hours in all possible I love the sun; I love his light; and I love that better light, of which his resplendent visage is but a feeble emblem. I once sat up on an arbitration all night, in a case, in which it seemed to be necessary; but the decision was such as satisfied none of the parties, no impartial hearer, and such as I myself could never after bear to think on, during the hours of sunshine. The whole secret of choosing well in matrimony, may be taught in three words-Explore the character. A violent love-fit is always the result of ignorance; for there is not a daughter of Eve, that has merit enough to justify romantic love, though thousands and thousands, may reasonably inspire that gentle esteem, which is infinitely better. A woman-worshipper and a woman-hater, both derive their mistakes from ignorance of the female world; for if the characters of women were thoroughly understood, they would be found too good to be hated, and yet not good enough to be idolized. На THE PURITAN. No. 48. At length the morn and cold indifference came; I hastily took leave; and left the nymph Fair Penitent. My design in this number, is to illustrate the remarks of the former number, by a story, which I have heard from several elder people, and which I believe to be strictly true. On the banks of the Merrimack, there dwelt a young lady, whose accomplishments were above her birth. She was not a finished beauty'; but had a delicate, interesting countenance, and a wit and vivacity, which made her the life and delight of all the companies with which she chose to mingle. Her education had been good, for that day, (the commencement of the revolutionary war,) and her character was brightened by that good sense (I had almost said ge nius) which, however untaught, always forms the foundation of the interest we take, either in woman or man. She was addressed by a young and enterprising youth; the master of a vessel, of a family rather more genteel than her own; who was considered every way worthy of her. The parents of the young man, it is true, made some objections at first, because the girl belonged to a plain household; but when they came to be acquainted with her, after a short visit at their house, every objection vanished; her personal charms overcame the impediments of her birth, and the mother of the young captain declared, that she was as much in love with the girl as her son. It was considered as a very happy connection. Two of the most sprightly youth of both sexes, the life of all parties, and the delight of all friends, were to be united; and nobody wondered, (which is in itself a wonder,) that the one had chosen the other. The young lover made several voyages to sea-for he was taught by his father, though he might marry a girl without much property, he must earn some money before marriage, or love would starve on penury and affection freeze. His adventures were good; his voyages, though long, were generally prosperous; and he was rising to that independence, which, on all principles of prudence, might justify marriage. But somehow, from some secret reason, unaccountable to all but the parties concerned, just before his last voyage, (previous to a disaster I am going to relate,) his |