Maidenhood

“ She manifested by her example the heavenly life on earth, for maidenhood is of all virtues queen, and the associate of the heavenly angels. The example and footsteps of this maiden were followed by an innumerable body of persons in maidenhood, living in purity, renouncing marriage, attaching themselves to the heavenly bridegroom Christ with steadfast mind and holy converse, and with wide garments, to that degree, that very many of them suffered martyrdom for maidenhood, and so with twofold victory went glorious to the heavenly dwelling-places. ”

“ Or, again, while her brother is slowly and painfully working his way up, so that he will become a Q.C. at forty, a Judge at sixty, the girl steps at once by marriage into a position that dazzles her friends, and becomes a queen of society, a patron of Art, a power in politics. Far be it from me to suppose that the maidens of any college dream of possibilities such as these. Perhaps, however, the possibilities of maidenhood are never quite forgotten. There is another possibility also. Every great man has a mother. Do maidens ever dream of the supreme happiness of having a great man for a son? ”

“ Meantime, reverence for maidenhood is one of the strongest safeguards of the sanctity of wedded life, and no delusions of any school, whether romantic, sentimental, Micheletic, humanitarian, or Lutheranistic, should be permitted to obscure this reverence. ”

“ That shadow had first fallen in their lusty childhood, had slowly gathered darkness through the overflowing days of maidenhood, and now, in the strong tide of full womanhood, often lay upon their future as the moon Odin's wrath lies upon the sun. ”

“ If there had lingered thus long on Sister Dolorosa's nature any upland of childhood snows, these vanished in that hour; if any vernal belt of maidenhood, it felt the hot breath of that experience of the world and of the human destiny which quickly ages whatever it does not destroy. So that while she prayed there seemed to rise from within her and take flight for ever that spotless image of herself as she once had been, and in its place to stand the form of a woman, older, altered, and set apart by sorrow. ”

“ The dignity and sacredness of wise and gracious womanhood will at length assert itself; and as the maiden gradually rises into a true aid and companion for man in his advanced intellectual and material condition, so the youth will have to make, and will rejoice in making, greater moral sacrifices to win her,—will scorn all baser passion, and fling himself a stainless knight at his shining lady's feet. ”

“ Daily she goes for to weep—for to wail—
(Hey, but I think that little maid will die!)
Both. Now tell me pray, and tell me true,
What in the world should the poor soul do?
She. If I were the youth I should offer her my name—
(Hey, but her face is a sight for to see!)
He. If I were the maid I should fan his honest flame—
(Hey, but he's bashful as a youth can be!)
She. If I were the youth I should speak to her to-day—
(Hey, but she sickens as the days go by!)
He. If I were the maid I should meet the lad half way—
(For I really do believe that timid youth will die!) ”

“ The development of the maiden is like the opening of some lovely flower-bud. As life unfolds, the tender smile and blush of childhood mingle with the grace of maidenly repose; the upturned, radiant eye gathers new depths of thought and emotion ”

“ CYRIL, HILARION, and FLORIAN
HILARION. I am a maiden, cold and stately, Heartless I, with face divine. What do I want with a heart, innately? Every heart I meet is mine! Every heart I meet is mine! ALL. Haughty, humble, coy, or free, Little care I what maid may be. So that a maid is fair to see, Ev'ry maid is the maid for me! Dance.
CYRIL. I am a maiden, frank and simple, Brimming with joyous roguery; Merriment lurks in ev'ry dimple Nobody breaks more hearts than I! Nobody breaks more hearts than I! ”

“ Let the maiden, with erect soul, walk serenely on her way, accept the hint of each new experience, search in turn all the objects that solicit her eye, that she may learn the power and the charm of her new-born being, which is the kindling of a new dawn in the recesses of space. ”

“ In that period of their lives, on the point, so grave for their sex, of becoming maids, they are assailed by unaccountable fears, by a vague sense of sadness, by an imperious demand for solitude where to give a loose rein to languorous reveries, novel sensations at which their chaste instincts take alarm, symptoms of the awakening of the virginal heart, first and shadowy aspirations of the maid for the sweet pleasures and austere duties of the wife and mother—the sacred destinies of woman. ”

“ Son, not greater thy wish to bring thee a bride to thy chamber, That thou mayst find thy nights a beautiful part of existence, And that the work of the day may gain independence and freedom, Than is thy father's wish too, and thy mother's. We always have counselled,— Yea, we have even insisted,—that thou shouldst select thee a maiden. But I was ever aware, and now my heart gives me assurance, That till the hour appointed is come, and the maiden appointed Shall with the hour appear, the choice will be left for the future, While more strong than all else will be fear of grasping the wrong one. ”

“ Ye saw him at morning, how gallant and gay!
In bridal adorning, the star of the day;
Now, weep for the lover—his triumph is sped,
His hope it is over! the chieftain is dead!
But, O! for the maiden who mourns for that chief,
With heart overladen and rending with grief!
She sinks on the meadow—in one morning-tide,
A wife and a widow, a maid and a bride!
Ye maidens attending, forbear to condole!
Your comfort is rending the depths of her soul:
True—true, 'twas a story for ages of pride ”

“ When thy heart burst in joy as I own'd thee for mine? Alas! for the maiden whose peace is betray'd By the tears and the vows of a falsehood like thine! As the changeable sky—now o'erclouded, now bright, Is the faith of thy race—their language to-day, "I will wed thee to-morrow, my love and my light!" To-morrow—"Let's wait till the harvest's away." The harvest is ended, the winter is nigh And another maid dwells in their hearts and their eye. S. J. B. LXXVII MAIDEN'S AFFECTION
"Black is the night—an outcast lad Is wandering in our village, mother! ”

“ Left everything to keep, one night,
A small appointment.
And are you sure the girl you love—
This maid on whom you have your heart set
Is lowly—that she is not of
The Roman smart set?
A maiden modest as is she,
So full of sweetness and forbearance,
Must be all right; her folks must be
Delightful parents. ”

“ For when a maiden is thus stern,
Virtue in truth has less concern
In this, than an inconstant will.
1767-9. ——- TRUE ENJOYMENT.
VAINLY wouldst thou, to gain a heart,
Heap up a maiden's lap with gold;
The joys of love thou must impart,
Wouldst thou e'er see those joys unfold.
The voices of the throng gold buys,
No single heart 'twill win for thee;
Wouldst thou a maiden make thy prize,
Thyself alone the bribe must be.
If by no sacred tie thou'rt bound,
Oh youth, thou must thyself restrain!
Well may true liberty be found,
Tho' man may seem to wear a chain. ”

“ Ay, why? for the best of all possible reasons—condensed in the smallest of all possible space, and yet establishing his perfect taste, unequalled judgment, and peculiarly-heroic self-esteem—he courted her because she was
“The fairest maid in all the town.”
Magnificent climax! overwhelming reason! Could volumes written, printed, or stereotyped, say more? Certainly not; the condensation of “Aurora’s blushes,” “the Graces’ attributes,” “Venus’s perfections,” and “Love’s sweet votaries,” all, all is more than spoken in the emphatic words—
“The fairest maid in all the town.” ”

“ Unless a young lady believes that motherhood is noble, is honorable, is divine, and she is willing to carry out that sacred function of her nature, she had a thousand times better refuse every proposal, and enter some honorable occupation and wisely die an old maid by choice. ”

“ Yet life and death
May hang upon a maid's "heigho!"
When maiden loves, she mopes apart,
As owl mopes on a tree;
Although she keenly feels the smart,
She cannot tell what ails her heart,
With its sad "Ah me!" ”

“ Think ye we have but to come, and that then the maiden will follow Merely because we are rich, while she is poor and an exile? "Poverty, too, makes proud, when it comes unmerited! Active Seems she to be, and contented, and so of the world is she mistress. Think ye a maiden like her, with the manners and beauty that she has, Can into woman have grown, and no worthy man's love have attracted? Think ye that love until now can have been shut out from her bosom? Drive not thither too rashly: we might to our mortification Have to turn softly homewards our horses' heads. ”

“ So that the maiden two ways very modestly both extenuates her own condition and extols the munificence of the Divine Being, not being content to style herself a handmaid, but also a humile one, one of the meanest circumstances. According to the old proverb, there is difference in servants ; so in maid-servants, one is better than another as to the dignity of their office a waiting- gentlewoman is more honourable than a laundrymaid. ”

“ None, but the Almighty, heard her fervent pray’rs:
No earthly being could see her faithful tears.
(Enough! enough!—come, check thy heaving breast:
Sigh not, fond maiden,—lovers have no rest
Ere they have some one to share half their fate;
And thou art chosen for that happy state.)
Courage commanded her—“rise, gentle maid!”
Her heart felt lighter, and her tears were stay’d.
* * * * *
Virtue’s reward:—say, Jove, what is the prize?—
What canst thou give? ”

“ But since I am a maiden
⁠I go with downcast eyes,
And he will never hear the songs
⁠That he has turned to sighs.
And since I am a maiden
⁠My love will never know
That I could kiss him with a mouth
⁠More red than roses blow. ”

“ From the first interview there is frequently thrown around the maiden a peculiar, undefined spell; she will feel differently in his presence, and watch him with other eyes than she has for [84] the rest of men, and in due time, when he shall ask her to decide upon the question which shall seal the temporal and eternal destiny of two human souls, she will gladly respond, giving in loving trustfulness that which is the most precious, the most enviable thing on earth: a maiden's heart, a woman's love. ”

“ If in a good man's house I can earn my living by service, Under the eye of an excellent mistress, I gladly will do it; Since of doubtful repute, must be always a wandering maiden. Yes, I will go with thee, soon as I first shall have carried the pitchers Back to my friends, and prayed the good people to give me their blessing. Come thou must see them thyself, and from their hands must receive me." Joyfully hearkened the youth to the willing maiden's decision, Doubtful whether he ought not at once to make honest confession. ”

“ Young maidens raised to them eyes full of admiration; they, selecting the maiden most beautiful, answered with jests, as if no care weighed on them, sending kisses, or exclaiming, “Embrace me before death does!” ”

“ How resolute the little maidens look as they stand in a line! Some are solemn with a sense of responsibility, some wear a smile half bashful, half provoked, but one air of determination pervades them all. ”

“ A maiden's scornful farewell to her fickle lover, as she returns him the presents and letters he has sent her.
If I had Minded Mamma, 3abcb and 3abcb, 6: A maiden's regret that she has been deluded by a faithless lover:
He is like the blue-birds ever
That flies from tree to tree;
And when he sees another girl
He never thinks of me.
I Used to Love, 4abcb and 4abcb, 4: A maiden voices her complaint against the "dark-eyed girl," her successful rival, and her wish for "coffin, shroud, and grave," to end her woe. ”

“ Though I hadn’t a sou at my bankers!
If you’ll tell me the reason a maiden must sigh
When she looks at a star or a planet;
If you’ll tell me the reason she flings her book by,
When you know she has hardly began it;
If her cheek has grown pale, and if dim is her eye,
And her breathing both fevered and faint is,
Then think it exceedingly likely that I
Can tell what that maiden’s complaint is!
COUSINS.
“L’Hymen, dit-on, craint les petits Cousins.”—Scribe. ”

“ Unless he is willing to hold his manhood in abeyance to the calls of your nature and to your conditions, and consecrate its passions and its powers to the elevation and happiness of his wife and children, your maiden soul had better return to God unadorned with the diadem of conjugal and maternal love than that you should become the wife of such man and the mother of his children. ”

“ But whether this be true or not, I know that there have been maidens as noble, as loving, as innocent as she, who have given up their lives in order to make this world a purer and happier place in which to live ”

“ Nay, you shall have your comfort, and you shall take it at the lips of any of a hundred maids. There is no choice for you. Why, no mysteries may trouble you. You have but a straight course to saunter by, without so much as blinking at the sun. Marry your maid then, and take your comfort in God's name. ”

“ Every maiden conceals a fairer flower and more luscious fruit than any calyx in the field, and if she go with averted face, confiding in her own purity and high resolves, she will make the heavens retrospective, and all nature will humbly confess its queen. ”

“ Your maid is your family at present; she is under your care; be now that religious governess that you intend to be; teach her the catechism, hear her read, exhort her to pray, take her with you to church, persuade her to love the divine service as you love it; and spare no pains to make her as devout as yourself. When you do thus much good in your present state, then you are that extraordinary person you intend to be; and till you thus live up to your present state, there is but little hopes that the altering your state will alter your way of life. ”

“ When thus the maid began, My sire
⁠Our passion disapproves,
He bids me wed Sir John the Graeme,
⁠So here must end our loves.
My father’s will must be obey’d.
⁠Nought boots me to withstand;
Some fairer maid in beauty’s bloom,
⁠Shall bless thee with her hand. ”