Yet the position of the parties might have been the
reverse as well; the Woman might have sung the deeds, given voice to
the life of the Man, and beauty would have been the result; as we see,
in pictures of Arcadia, the nymph singing to the shepherds, or the
shepherd, with his pipe, alluring the nymphs; either makes a good
picture. The sounding lyre requires not muscular strength, but energy
of soul to animate the hand which would control it. Nature seems to
delight in varying the arrangements, as if to show that she will be
fettered by no rule; and we must admit the same varieties that she
admits.
The fourth and highest grade of marriage union is the religious, which
may be expressed as pilgrimage toward a common shrine. This includes
the others: home sympathies and household wisdom, for these pilgrims
must know how to assist each other along the dusty way; intellectual
communion, for how sad it would be on such a journey to have a
companion to whom you could not communicate your thoughts and
aspirations as they sprang to life; who would have no feeling for the
prospects that open, more and more glorious as we advance; who would
never see the flowers that may be gathered by the most industrious
traveller! It must include all these.
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