ustry, good fortune, are his sureties for the
future. However well educated he may be, he knows that in his own
class he will find lovely women equally well educated. They may be
teaching, clerking, sewing, but they are his peers. He has no idea of
marrying a young lady accustomed to servants and luxury, and the
question of dower never occurs to him. The good girl who supplements
his industry by her economy, who cheers him with her sympathy, who
shares all his thoughts and feelings, and crowns his life with love
and consolation, has all the dowry he wants. And this is an opinion
founded on a long life of observation,--an opinion that fire cannot
burn out of me.

The Ring Upon the Finger

Rings were probably the first ornaments ever worn, though in the
earliest ages they had a meaning far beyond mere adornment. The
stories of Judah and Tamar, of Pharaoh and Joseph, of Ahasuerus and
Haman, show that as pledges of good faith, as marks of favor, and as
tokens of authority, they were the recognized symbols. The fashion was
an Eastern one, for the Jews were familiar with it before their
sojourn in Egypt; indeed, it may have been one of those primeval
customs which Shem, Ham, and Japhet saved from the wreck of an earlier
world. Certainly the people of Syria and the lords of Palestine and
Tyre used rings in the earliest times; and it is remarkable that they
bore the same emblem which ancient Mexican rings bear,--the
constellation of Pisces. As an ornament, however, the ring is least
important; it is an emblem. The charmed circle has potency and
romance.

Great faith in all ages has been placed in charmed rings. Greeks
and Romans possessed them, and the Scandinavian nations had a
superstitious faith in such amulets; indeed, as chronicles declare,
it is hard to compute how much William was indebted for his
victory over Harold to the influence of the ring he wore, which had
been blessed and hallowed. As curative agencies, rings have also
played a curious part. Until the Georgian era, rings blessed by the
King or Queen on Good Friday were thought to control epilepsy and
other complaints, and something of this secret power is still
acknowledged by the superstitious, who wear around their necks rings
or coins that have been blessed. Rings have also been agencies for
death, as well as for life. In all ages they have been receptacles
for subtle poisons, and thus Hannibal and Demosthenes armed
themselves against an extremit