The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 11, July, 1835Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 11, July, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Mrs. Sandford blames those enthusiastic females "who wander about from
house to house, retailing the spiritual errors of the day, feeling the
religious pulse, dispensing prescriptions, and giving notoriety, at
least, to every new nostrum which would impose on the credulity of
weak and wayward christians; going about with their little casket of
specifics, they excite and foster the diseases they affect to cure."
Such enthusiasm as this, she well observes, "bears not the rose of
Sharon, but the apple of discord: not clusters of the celestial vine,
but spurious berries, which have the form, but not the sweetness of
the genuine fruit." There is a something in the quiet, meek, gentle,
and unobtrusive aspect and demeanor of the truly pious woman, which,
of itself, produces a mighty influence on the other sex. In the
collection of Lely's famous Windsor Beauties, there is one which
strikes the eye of the beholder, and rivets it in steadfast and
extatic gaze, it is the picture of Mrs. Nott. In Mrs. Jameson's
description of those Beauties, I have been more struck with Mrs. Nott,
although her tale is untold, than with any in the collection, not
excepting even the beautiful, the lovely Miss Hamilton. This fair
creature is represented with her book, and her flowers, and her
_village church_, in the back ground. These are the beautiful and
graceful appendages of piety and virtue. "As for the picture," says
Mrs. J. "it is some satisfaction to know, that slander has never
breathed upon those features to sully them to our fancy; that sorrow,
which comes to all, can never come there." Gazing on such a lovely, I
had like to have said _holy_ picture, well might she exclaim, "Is
there no power in conjuration to make those ruby lips unclose and
reveal all we long to know? Are they forever silent? The soul that
once inhabited there, that looked through those mild eyes, the heart
that beat beneath that modest vest; are they fled and cold? And of all
the thoughts, the feelings, the hopes, the joys, the fears, 'the hoard
of unsunn'd griefs' that once had their dwelling there; is this--this
surface--where beauty yet lives, 'clothed in the rainbow tints of
heaven,' but mute, cold, impassive--all that remains." And such will
ever be the curiosity which a meek, beautiful, and pious female, will
excite in the bosom of sensibility and affection.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.
LIONEL GRANBY.
CHAP. IV.
She like a solitary rose that springs
In the first warmth of summer days, and flings
A perfume the more sweet because alone
Just bursting into beauty, with a zone--
Half girl's--half woman's.--_Marcian Colonna_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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