d affectionately, yours, etc.

LETTER V.

DOMESTIC LIFE.--THE MARRIAGE RELATION.--DOMESTIC HAPPINESS A RELIC
OF PARADISE.--ITS ENDEARMENTS.--ITS VALUE.--THE BARBARISM OF
INVADING THE DOMESTIC SANCTUARY.--AN ILLUSTRATION.

MY DEAR BROTHER,--I come now, in the third place, to speak of slavery as
it is related to the endearments and duties of domestic life. On this
subject my heart is full. I am almost afraid to speak, lest I say what I
ought not; and yet I cannot keep silence. I can, in a good measure,
sympathize with Elihu when he said,--

"For I am full of words,
The spirit within me doth constrain me,
Behold I am as wine which hath no vent,
I am ready to burst like new bottles,
I will speak that I may breathe more freely,
I will open my lips and reply."[F]

We now approach a topic more intimately connected with the present and
future happiness of the human race than almost any other. Man was not
completely blest, even in Eden, until God instituted the marriage
relation. His Creator gave him a companion to participate in his joys,
binding them together by ties which no human power might sunder.
Paradise was lost by sin, but as our first parents were exiled thence,
God in infinite kindness permitted them to take one of its purest,
sweetest sources of joy with them to this world of sorrows.

"Domestic happiness! thou only bliss
Of Paradise that has survived the fall!"

You, my dear brother, are a husband and father, and can appreciate my
meaning, when I speak of the richness, the tenderness, the depth, of
connubial and paternal love; how it lights up this dark world with
smiles,--how it stimulates us to manly exertion,--how it lightens the
burdens of human life, and enables us cheerfully to sustain its ills,
while it almost restores to us Eden itself. To understand what is meant
by the term domestic happiness, it is necessary for you and me only to
look at the circles around our own firesides, and listen to the musical
accents of the loved ones who dwell there, as they pronounce the words
husband, father, mother, brother, sister, and exchange with them kind
looks and the affectionate embrace. What earthly joys can be compared
with those of home? What would tempt us to part with them? All the gold
in California and Australia would be spurned in contempt, if offered in
exchange. What should we say, and what should we do, were any power on
earth to interfere with our fi