Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

But the course is over, and the Volunteers must go back to other pursuits and other thoughts. Yet, not without regret that it is all over, does the cockney Volunteer look back from the top of the long steep hill at the shingles, and the white targets, and the dark sea; till the horses trot on to the station

and he is caught in the great railwayweb, and drawn, as with unseen claw, deeper and deeper in its meshes to the clutches of the great city, the huge Webspinner of it all, back to the ceaseless noise, and the pale faces, and the "gladsome light of Jurisprudence."

HINTS ON PROPOSALS.

BY AN EXPERIENCED CHAPERONE.

MOST women allow that in the course of their lives they have gone through, at least once, the ordeal of a "proposal," but then they feel bound in honour not to disclose circumstances and particulars. Men naturally enough utterly refuse to detail their experiences on this subject. Their Edith or Georgina sits at the head of their table, and the mystical words used to induce her to accept that happy position, whether inspired by the feelings of the moment, or guided by the light of numerous previous failures, we are never allowed to know. I, therefore, as an elderly matron, hope for some gratitude from the rising generation, if I offer a few suggestions and write down such information on this mysterious subject as I have stored up in the course of a long life.

In the first place, then :-Avoid too much haste in matrimonial matters. A clever writer in the Saturday Review recommends no man to marry till he has seen his beloved with a cold in her head. If his affection will stand this test, nothing, he thinks, can chill it; but this writer, I gather from internal evidence in his own article, is young and a bachelor, and has evidently never made a sea voyage. However, his theory is good as far as it goes, and might, if generally acted upon, prevent some of the contretemps arising from hasty

be a Tory; the Tory Volunteer the right of his comrade to be a Whig; and if, out of the comradeship, any higher sentiment can come, overarching the difference of Whig and Tory,

so much the better !-EDITOR.

offers of marriage. One such occurs to me at this moment. A proposal was written and sent by the post in the days when letters travelled quietly at the rate of ten miles an hour on the mail coach. The anxious lover for the first week breathlessly expected the reply, but it did not come. The next week he pined, and was sleepless; still no answer. The third week he became indignant. "A civil acknowledgment was his due. She was heartless, and a flirt." The next week he despised her, and congratulated himself on his escape; and, when at the end of it he received his own letter back from the Dead Letter Office, because he had in his agitation forgotten to direct it, he had so completely outlived his love that he never proposed to that lady at all.

In the second place:-Always deal with principals. If a girl is too young to know her own mind, you had better wait till she is older; and, if she is too undecided to judge of her own feelings, why not choose some one a little wiser? I know a fine disposition which was soured, and the course of two lives materially darkened, by a churlish old father, who never told his daughter of the declaration of attachment he had received for her, because he considered the income offered to be insufficient. She thought her feelings had been trifled with, and the man a heartless flirt. Many years afterwards, she found out, by accident, how much she had misjudged him; but it was then too

late.

Let me recommend young girls to shun the man who is, even when making love, wrapped up in himself and his own pursuits, instead of being able to throw his mind into their occupations, or to sympathise with their feelings. Such a man is either narrow-minded or narrow-hearted.

I once saw a middle-aged invalid making love to a young girl. After making great efforts to secure an opportunity of meeting her, he drew his chair close to hers, looked into her face, sighed heavily, drew his chair still closer, and, while she looked at him in astonishment, and I in the distance strained my ears to hear what tender remark followed all this preparation, I heard him whisper with great emphasis, "Who is your doctor?" I need hardly say that the proposal failed which followed this well-judged commencement. A more pardonable case of a man's absorption in his own pursuits was that of a very shy lover, whose one idea was horses. He never found courage to propose till he had persuaded the lady to go into the stable and look at his favourite horse. There he spoke, and there she answered yes. But this was natural and pardonable; a shy man may need this vantage ground, and, feeling his own inferiority in the drawing-room, may yet be aware of his superior knowledge and superior power in the stable, where his horse is his throne, and he himself a king.

Thirdly. Never express strong determinations on the subject of marriage, unless you mean to break them. I have seldom heard an old bachelor declare that he had quite decided not to marry without feeling sure that the subject was engrossing a good deal of his thoughts, and soon afterwards seeing his marriage announced in the Morning Post. If a man assures you he could never marry a widow, or a fast young lady, or a girl who is fat, he is sure to do it; and, when the young girls who honour me with their confidence assure me they never could marry a man who is short, or who can't ride across country, or who wears a beard, or who has only 500l. a year, or a county squire

who rides without straps, or forgets to wear gloves, I consider that their doom is sealed, and that their husbands will be the opposite of their youthful ideal in these exact particulars. But people fall generally du côté où l'on penche, and the penchant of this generation is certainly not to idealize too much. Warning, therefore, on this head, is perhaps unnecessary. Rather, I remind them that imagination is, as Schlegel tells us, a garden of Eden within us, which man ought to dress and keep within bounds, not ruthlessly fell.

I plead, therefore, that a little romance be still left around the proposal even in this money-making and money-seeking age. Let the words be spoken at a time and in a place which imagination may love to dwell upon, and beware of the example of Sir O. P.-a well-known physician. He is said to have rolled the note, in which he asked for the Duchess of -'s hand, round a phial of medicine. She accepted the bitter draught but refused the man. I have also heard that a beautiful and accomplished lady, who had become an enthusiast in farming with the view of benefiting her tenants and dependents, was "proposed to" in a new pig-stye by an eminent agriculturist, while they were discussing the various arrangements and improvements which might be made in the building. Here an engrossing pursuit in common had assisted the dénouement; but such similarity of taste may be but temporary, and is a frail foundation for lasting union.

A north-country gentleman, a master of hounds, and a man of much character and originality, but shy and peculiar in society, was by such similarity of taste thrown much in the way of a lady who rode well. My elderly cheeks tingle with a blush while I write that, the gentleman not improving the opportunities given him of declaring his sentiments when riding home with the lady after hunting, she took a step which, as I am presenting the different aspects and circumstances of proposals, I feel bound, however unwillingly, to relate: Why should we not marry, Sir John?" she said. "Ah!" said Sir John; "I

[ocr errors]

had often thought of it." And married they were!

There are fatalities which seem to attend upon some lovers-strange events, unexpected meetings, which sometimes promote, sometimes prevent, proposals. A marriage took place not many years ago, in the great world, where the two lovers (long attached, but separated by the desire of their parents) met under an archway while each taking refuge in London from a sudden shower of rain. Neither of them had the least idea of the neighbourhood of the other, when the sudden meeting occurred which decided the course of their future lives. In another case the engagement was broken off on account of limited means, and the gentleman went abroad. turning after some years' absence, he arrived late on the railway platform, and rushed into the first carriage he reached, just as the train was in motion. In it he found (with her mother) the lady he had been so long vainly endeavouring to forget, and the meeting ended in one of the happiest of marriages.

Re

Hans Andersen gives in one of his books an amusing account of a young man, newly appointed to some official position in the court of Copenhagen, ordering his court dress in great haste, that he might be present at a ball where he meant to declare his attachment to a beautiful girl whom he had long loved. All went smoothly, and he was on the point of proposing, nay, had spoken a few preliminary words, when a button. gave way on the hastily-made court dress. The lover rushed abruptly away, and the lady, hurt at his unlooked-for departure, made an engagement for a sleighing party next day, where she received and accepted the offer of another lover. Thus, love, as well as life, often hangs upon a thread.

In matrimony, as in other affairs, it is all-important to put the critical question in the way best adapted to the character and disposition of the person concerned. A gentleman who had several sisters -agreeable, sensible, and, some of them, fine looking women-was one day asked how it happened that they had all

"I will

reached middle age unmarried. explain," he replied. "Proposals without attentions, and attentions without proposals; this is the clue to my sisters' single life." To take an opposite example. A friend of mine with a warm heart and quick impulses is much in the habit of decidedly negativing any proposition when first made to her, merely on account of its novelty. One day, while referring to her happy marriage, I enquired how it happened, with her dislike to new suggestions, that she did not say No, when her husband proposed to her. "Ah!" she said, "I did; but he knew my habit, and put the question in such a way that saying no meant yes."

Lastly:-Always secure your retreat in love as in war. This is a precaution never to be neglected. Mr. A-, brother to the late Lord Z-, whose proud and haughty temper was proverbial, proposed to a lady in Portman-square Gardens. After being refused the rejected lover turned away from her in great indignation, but, finding the gate of the garden locked, was obliged to return to the lady to petition for the key. Another case, still more trying, was that of a gentleman travelling in North America, who, after being hospitably received in the house of an officer high in command there, proposed to his host's daughter, the evening before his intended departure, and was refused. A deep fall of snow came on in the night; the roads became impassable; and the poor man, to his unspeakable mortification, was detained for a week in the house with the lady who had rejected him.

Such are some of the incidents relating to proposals which occur to me at this moment. Stranger and more varied cases will probably rise up to the memory of most of my readers, surrounded, in some instances, by sad and softening recollections; embittered, in others, by long and unavailing regrets.

Pause, then, and prosper, my young reader. Bear with you on your pathway the elderly chaperone's best wishes for your happy entrance into this land

[blocks in formation]

BY WILLIAM POLE, C.E., FELLOW OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.

A TOTAL eclipse of the sun is an event which never fails to excite great attention, not only on account of the grandeur and importance of the phenomena which attend it, but on account of the extreme rarity of its occurrence in any given locality.

The phenomena, even as presenting themselves to an uneducated spectator, are indeed striking. The sudden blotting out of the great orb from the face of nature, while still high in heaven; the substitution for it of a celestial appearance as splendid as it is novel; the supernatural effect on the landscape ;all these things cannot fail to produce an impression which, once seen, even for the few seconds they last, can never be effaced from the mind. And then the interest of the occurrence is very great in a more scientific point of view. The proof its prediction affords of the amazing degree of accuracy to which we have brought our astronomical calculations, and the data it gives for still further improving them, are inestimable to the mathematician; the singular and mysterious appearances which present themselves around the solar disk afford to the physical astronomer most interesting glimpses of the nature and constitution of our great luminary-obscure, it is true, but still such as he can, as yet at least, obtain in no other way; and finally, we have in an event so abnormal as a total eclipse many other phenomena, meteorological and the like, which it is extremely important, for the general benefit of science, to register and trace.

The interest of this phenomenon is moreover much enhanced by the extreme

rarity of its occurrence in any given locality. While a total eclipse of the moon is visible to the whole terrestrial hemisphere to which she is above the horizon, one of the sun is only total to a very small portion of the earth's surface. The moon's shadow, passing across the earth, forms only a narrow belt or stripe of from 100 to 150 miles wide, and it is solely within this space that the total obscuration can be seen. And when it is considered that this shadow belt, even when it crosses the earth centrally, which rarely happens, forms much less than one-hundredth part of the earth's surface, it may be easily imagined that the chances of its falling upon, or even within a reasonably accessible distance of any given locality, are very remote. A great many total eclipses fall on the ocean, or near the poles, or otherwise in places that may be considered altogether inaccessible to the more civilized of the earth's inhabitants.

The line of shadow of the eclipse of the 18th of July last began at a high latitude in North America, traversed the Atlantic,1 formed a broad belt obliquely across the north of Spain, crossed the Mediterranean to Algeria, and passed over the deserts of Northern Africa till it ended near the Red Sea. It was thus easily accessible to European astrono mers; the districts were considered favourable for the chance of fine weather, and the totality was to be of somewhat long duration. The conjunction of

It is believed that the Hero, which sailed from Plymouth a few days before the eclipse, conveying the Prince of Wales to Canada, put herself in the line of totality to afford H.R.H. a view of this grand phenomenon.

all these circumstances caused the event to be looked forward to with much interest, and many were the projects entertained by private astronomers for undertaking its observation; but in the meantime the concurrent efforts of three individuals, whose names will stand conspicuous in the English records of this eclipse, conspired to give the plans or this purpose more definite form. The first was Mr. Warren de la Rue, who had for some years given special attention to the application of photography to celestial subjects, and who had erected, and successfully worked, an instrument at Kew Observatory for the purpose of photographing the sun. Mr. De la Rue saw how great the advantages to science would be if photographs of the appearances during totality could be obtained; and he resolved to undertake the difficult task, if he could procure the necessary facilities for the transport and fixing of the somewhat cumbersome preparations he would require. Here stepped in another amateur, Mr. Charles Vignoles, the engineer of a railway in course of construction in the north of Spain, running for its whole length precisely in the path of the shadow. He generously offered to procure for any number of astronomers, with any amount of apparatus, who would present themselves on his territory, all possible facilities; and, taking a bold initiative, he further went to the trouble of preparing, and to the expense of publishing for gratuitous distribution, an elaborate and beautiful map of the shadow-path over the whole district, accompanied with a book of valuable detailed information for the guidance of those who might visit the locality. Last, though not least, came the Astronomer Royal of England, Professor Airy, who, giving the weight of his sanction to Mr. De la Rue's projects, and seeing the great advantages to be derived from Mr. Vignoles's co-operation, undertook to organize an expedition of astronomers and scientific men for the purpose of observing the eclipse. His first step was to communicate with the Government, and request their aid.

This they consented to give with a promptitude and a neglect of red tape which does them unwonted honour. They agreed to put a steamer at the Astronomer Royal's disposal, for the gratuitous conveyance of the astronomers and their apparatus to and from the coast of Spain; and they further made interest with the Spanish Government to relax in their special case any vexatious custom-house or passport regulations, and to afford the expedition all the countenance in their power.

Invitations to join the expedition were sent to the most eminent astronomers of Great Britain; and, with much liberality, the Astronomer Royal accepted freely the co-operation of many astronomical amateurs and other scientific men, who volunteered to join, and who gave reasonable prospect of being able to contribute to the general results. was in this way that I obtained permission to form one of the party.

It

As I had never seen a total eclipse before, I did not feel warranted in undertaking any particular subject of attention in so new a field, but reserved myself for the general observation of the phenomena, without any predetermined plan, further than taking all the precautions necessary to make my observations as good as the circumstances would permit. I resolved to eschew any great size, power, or complexity of telescope, contenting myself with a tolerable sea-glass by Elliott, thirty inches long, two-inch object glass, and magnifying about twenty times. It was absolutely necessary to have a stand, and for some time I was puzzled how to contrive this without burdening myself with a heavy package; but at last I bethought myself of using my camerastand, which I had to take for photographic purposes, and which folded up into a single stick for convenience of carriage. On this I managed, by a very simple contrivance, partly taken from England and partly made by a carpenter at Vitoria, to scheme a rough mounting for the telescope, which I fixed equatorially. I further thought it might be desirable to have a wire in the

« AnteriorContinuar »