Washington Telegraph

Marriages.

Marriages not solemnized by the duties of religion, are seldom happy; and all ages testify to the truth that marriage has ever been closely allied to religion. It has had its altar, its offering, its rites, its innovation, its shrine, its mysteries, its mystical significance. "It is honorable," says the apostle. "Precious," some commentators tell us, the epithet should be rendered,—of great value, of highest price. In either sense, it would well denote what may be called, by way of eminence, the conservative institution of human society, the channel for the transmission of its purest life; and, for this very reason, the object ever of the fiercest attacks of every scheme of disorganizing philosophy. In harmony with this idea, there was a deep significance in some of the Greek marriage ceremonies; and, among these none professed a profounder import than the custom of carrying a torch or torches in the bridal procession. Especially was this the mother's delightful office. It was hers in a peculiar manner to bear aloft the flaming symbol before the daughter-in-law, and there was no act of her life to which the heart of a Grecian mother looked forward with a more lively interest. It was, on the other hand, a ground of the most passionate grief, when an early death, or some still sadder calamity, cut off the fond anticipation. Thus, Medea,—

"I go an exile to a foreign land.
Ere blest in you or having seen you blest
That rapturous office never shall be mine
To adorn the bride, and with a mother's hand.
Lift high the nuptial torch."

Like many other classical expressions, it has passed into common use, and become a mere conventional phraseology, and this is the case with much of our poetical and rhetorical dialect.