These marriages, these characters, with all their imperfections,
express an onward tendency. They speak of aspiration of soul, of
energy of mind, seeking clearness and freedom. Of a like promise are
the tracts lately published by Goodwyn Barmby (the European Pariah, as
he calls himself) and his wife Catharine. Whatever we may think of
their measures, we see in them wedlock; the two minds are wed by the
only contract that can permanently avail, that of a common faith and a
common purpose.
We might mention instances, nearer home, of minds, partners in work
and in life, sharing together, on equal terms, public and private
interests, and which wear not, on any side, the aspect of offence
shown by those last-named: persons who steer straight onward, yet, in
our comparatively free life, have not been obliged to run their heads
against any wall. But the principles which guide them might, under
petrified and oppressive institutions, have made them warlike,
paradoxical, and, in some sense, Pariahs. The phenomena are different,
the law is the same, in all these cases. Men and women have been
obliged to build up their house anew from the very foundation. If they
found stone ready in the quarry, they took it peaceably; otherwise
they alarmed the country by pulling down old towers to get materials.
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