A wife should be like echo, true,
Not speak but when she's spoken to;

Yet not like echo, still be heard
Contending for the final word!

Like a town clock a wife should be,
Keep time and regularity;

But not like clock harangue so clear,
That all the town her voice may hear!

PALMER

THE WOMAN-LYE MASTER-PIECE.

AND this I would ye should understand,

I have seen women, five hundred thousand;
Yet in all places where I have been,
Of all the women that I have seen,

I never saw nor knew in my conscience
Any one woman out of patience!!!

POTICARY

By the mass, there's a great lye!

PARDONER

I never heard a greater, by our Ladie!
PEDLER-

A greater! nay, know you any one so great?
Merry John Heywood.

SHE

THE GOOD WIFE.

spring-tide of his

HE never crosseth her husband in the anger, but stays till it be ebbing water. Surely men, contrary to iron, are worse to be wrought upon when they are hot. Her clothes are rather comely than costly, and she makes plain cloth to be velvet by her handsome wearing it. Her husband's secrets she will not divulge; especially she is careful to conceal his infirmities. In her husband's absence, she is wife and deputy-husband, which makes her double the files of her diligence. At his return, he finds all things so well, that he wonders to see himself at home when he was abroad. Her children, though many in number, are none in noise, steering them with a look whither she listeth.

Thomas Fuller.

LET no man value at a little price

A virtuous woman's counsel.

George Chapman.

A

WOMAN in a single state may be happy, and may be miserable; but most happy, most miserable-these are epithets, which, with rare exceptions, belong exclusively to a wife,

S. T. Coleridge.

I

MUTUAL FORGIVENESS.

SUPPOSE the brides are few who have not wept once over the hasty words of a husband, not six months married; and

suppose there are few husbands who, in the early part of their married life, have not felt that perhaps their choice was not a wise one. Breaches of harmony will occur between imperfect men and women; but all evil results may be avoided by a resolution, well kept on both sides, to ask forgiveness for the hasty word, the peevish complaint, the unshared pleasure; and if there is a frank and worthy nature, a quarrel is impossible.

Dr. J. G. Holland.

THE very difference in their characters produced a har

monious combination. He was of a romantic and somewhat serious cast: she was all life and gladness.

THE RETURN.

Washington Irving.

A

ND will I see his face again?
And will I hear him speak?

I'm downright dizzy wi' the thought;
In troth I'm like to greet.

Sae sweet his voice, sae smooth his tongue;

His breath's like caller air;

His very foot has music in't,

As he comes up the stair.

For there's nae luck about the house,
There's nae luck at a',

There's little pleasure in the house

When our gude man's awa.

William J. Mickle

TO MY WIFE,

On the Anniversary of her Wedding-day, which was also her Birth-day.

"THEE, Mary, with this ring I wed;"
So, fourteen years ago, I said.

Behold another ring! For what?
To wed thee o'er again. Why not?
With that first ring I married youth,
Grace, beauty, innocence, and truth,
Taste long admired, sense long revered,
And all my Mary then appeared.
If she, by merit since disclosed,
Prove twice the woman I supposed,
I plead that double merit now
To justify a double vow.

Here, then, to-day (with faith as sure,
With ardor as intense, as pure,
As when amidst the rites divine,
I took thy troth and plighted mine),
To thee, sweet girl, my second ring,
A token and a pledge I bring;
With this I wed, till death us part,
The riper virtues of thy heart;
Those virtues which, before untried,
The wife has added to the bride;
Those virtues, whose progressive claim,
Endearing wedlock's very name,

My soul enjoys, my song approves,
For conscience' sake, as well as love's.
And why? They show me every hour
Honor's high thought, affection's power,
Discretion's deed, sound judgment's sentence,
And teach me all things but repentance.

Samuel Bishop.

THE

HE treasures of the deep are not so precious
As are the concealed comforts of a man
Locked up in woman's love. I scent the air
Of blessing when I come but near the house.
What a delicious breath marriage sends forth.
The violet bed's not sweeter!

Middleton.

STRONG indeed is the man who has a good wife; a sensible, affectionate, refined, practical woman, who makes a man's nature all the stronger, by making it more tender.

S. Osgood.

WE

ILLUSIONS.

E are not very much to blame for our bad marriages. We live amid hallucinations, and this especial trap is laid to trip up our feet with, and all are tripped up first or last. But the mighty Mother, who had been so sly with us, as if she felt she owed us some indemnity, insinuates into the Pandora box of marriage some deep and serious benefits, and some great joys. We find a delight in the beauty and happi