PROGNOSTICS.
“With caution judge of probability;
Things thought unlikely, e’en impossible,
Experience often shows us to be true.”—_Shakspeare._
The world-honoured and time-honoured bard whose lines are quoted above
habitually looked beneath the mere plausible surface of possibility, and
from the deep insight thereby gained, often put forth oracles at
opposition to the usual routine of thought and expectation, yet which
the eternal experiences of life continue to endorse as truths.
Were I writing a merely fictitious narrative, it would be in order now
(after the custom-sanctioned manner of story-tellers) to describe the
cruel opposition the lovers met from tyrannical parents, guardians, &c.
But I am writing a true story—in this particular at least, “stranger
than fiction”—and so have no such events to relate.
It happened as Rosalie had predicted—she met no serious opposition to
the current of her affections. And if we look into the causes of that
leniency on the part of her guardians, we shall not find their
non-resistance so unaccountable, after all.
Left without father or mother—without near relatives or natural
protectors, except a youthful step-dame, now too entirely absorbed in
the contemplation of her own marriage, and an old uncle, to whom until
two years past she had been a perfect stranger, Miss Vivian was thus not
the first object of interest to any one around her.
It is true, that when Rosalie made known her purpose to Mrs. Vivian, the
lady opposed the contemplated marriage with entreaties and tears; but
finding that entreaties and tears only distressed the maiden without
shaking her resolution, the young step-mother felt neither the right nor
the inclination to attempt the arbitrary control of Miss Vivian’s
destiny. In yielding her final consent, the sweet-lipped lady said, amid
falling tears—“Oh! were he well established, Rosalie, there is no one in
the world to whom I would resign you with so much pleasure and comfort,
as to him whom you have chosen. And well I know, and deeply I feel, that
even now, from this low point of life—with you by his side—with you for
an incentive—with his high moral principles and intellectual faculties,
and in this favoured country, he _must_ rise, he _must_ accomplish a
brilliant destiny. But O, Rosalie, my child, in the meanwhile, I dread
for you those toilsome, terrible first steps on the road to success! O
Rosalie, pause! How much wiser to wait until he has conquered success!”
“And share his triumphs when I would not share his toils? No! no! no!”
“It would be so much safer, Rosalie!”
“And so much more _prudent_ to allow him, in those moments of depression
and despondency that must come, to think that it is only the
_successful_ statesman or jurist whose fortunes I would share, not those
of the toiling aspirant! To turn a second India on his hands, and so
forever and forever break down his faith in womanhood, in
disinterestedness, and in truth! No! no! no! and a thousand times no! I
have the blessed privilege of healing the heart that India wounded, of
lifting up the brow that she bowed down, of strengthening and sustaining
the faith that she weakened.”
“If you should be a burden to him?”
“I will _never_ be a burden to him! Providence will never so fail me.
Mine is no sudden girlish fancy. It is a deep, earnest affection,
arising from the profoundest sentiments of esteem and honour that ever
woman felt for man—and the Father who inspired it will bless it. HE who
in his benignant love said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone,’ will
strengthen me to be a true help-meet for my husband.”
“O Rosalie! be _practical_, child!”
“Be faithful first, and practical afterwards.”
“Rosalie, you don’t know what you brave! Fancy yourself and Mark now
married, and housekeeping (forsooth!) in some wretched log cabin or some
lath-and-plaster shell of a shanty, in some new Western village. Fancy
yourselves both down with that curse of new settlements, the ague, and
each unable to help the other, and no one to give you a cup of tea, and
perhaps with no tea in the house.”
“That is a plain statement of a very dismal contingency, dear mamma. Yet
I have no doubt that we should shiver and shake safely through it, as
others have done. Yet it is not fair or wise to contemplate the worst
possibility only. The Western pioneers are not always laid up _with_ the
ague and _without_ tea!” said Rosalie, with a sparkle of fun in her
eyes.
But in a moment after, the young girl’s face grew serious, and she said,
in a tremulous voice, “And besides, dear mamma, the very bugbears that
you have evoked to frighten me from my journey only draw me on to go.
Oh, do you think, mamma, that I could bear to stay here in safety, ease,
and luxury, and know that he was far away, exposed to all the dangers,
hardships, and privations of a pioneer life?”
“Nonsense! Danger is the natural element of man! to seek it is the
nature of the creature!”
“Yes, mamma; but illness, fever, burning thirst, solitude, and
helplessness, is _not_. And, if I thought that Mark were suffering all
these things in some wretched Western cabin, and I not near to bathe his
head and give him a cup of cold water, and to nurse and comfort and
soothe him, but separated from him by thousands of miles of mountains
and plains, I tell you, mamma, it would nearly break my heart! It is no
use! I _must_ go with him, to meet whatever of good or ill Fate has in
store. It can have nothing else so evil as a separation! Oh! I feel as
if the worst calamity that could possibly befall me, would be a
separation from him.”
“Foolish girl! You love that broad-shouldered, robust man, as tenderly
as a mother loves her babe!”
“I love him with a tenderness and sympathy that makes me tremblingly
alive to his least sorrow or lightest pain; and yet mark you, mamma,
with an esteem, with a depth of respect, with an honour that makes me
aspire to his approbation as my highest good under Heaven!”
“O Rosalie, I will not farther oppose you! Yet, if you only had strength
to endure the hardships of a Western life, I should feel less anxiety.”
“Do not fear. I shall be able to endure, because ‘my good will is to
it;’ and energetic, because I shall have a good motive; and healthy,
because I shall be happy—because my heart will be right and at rest; for
I say it again, because it is a great deep truth—‘_Out of the heart are
the issues of life!_’ Yes, out of the heart are the issues of will,
purpose, hope, health, strength, enterprise, achievement, SUCCESS! Out
of the heart are the issues of all the good that can come back to us in
time or eternity! on earth or in Heaven!”