Christian History Institute Presents Pastwords #184: An Interesting Definition of the Woman's Role from 1854 Wisdom by Willis P. Hazard ©2007

WOMAN'S MISSION INTRODUCTION

...... The age in which we live is pre-eminently one of novelty, new plans, new discoveries, new truths, new opinions, at least, whether true or chimerical. Some of these relate to the position, political and social, of woman, whose importance in the scale of humanity, no rational being, above all, no Christian, can doubt. The "last at the Cross, and earliest at the grave," are dignified in the eyes of all Christian believers by the noble qualities of unworldliness and self-devotion; and it is one among many of the internal and collateral evidences of Christianity, that its historians have so beautifully and faithfully portrayed the distinction between man's and woman's devotedness.

hat the sex, characterized by such noble moral development, is destined to exercise no unimportant influence on the political and social condition of mankind, we must all believe; indeed, the united testimony of ages leaves this an undoubted fact. There is a popular cry raised of injustice and oppression on the part of the other sex. Yet men, in all ages, have shown a sufficient willingness to allow woman a share of influence, sometimes a very undue share. There is no hyperbole in the phrase, "Vainqueurs des vainqueurs de la terre;" and this influence is so powerful, and so generally felt, that it becomes a question whether it is used as it ought to be--for good.

But, it is said, it is degrading to work by influence, instead of by power--indirectly, instead of directly--as subordinates, not as principals. Here is the question at issue. Would mankind be benefited by the exchange of influence for power, in the case of woman? Would the greatest possible good be procured by bringing her out of her present sphere into the arena of public life, by introducing to our homes and to our hearths the violent dissensions, the hard and rancorous feelings, engendered by political strife? It is really difficult to approach the subject in the form to which it has by some writers been reduced, with any degree of gravity; and it is somewhat to the credit of the other sex, that it has not more frequently been treated with the keen and indelicate satire which it deserves, and might provoke. Yet we are not one iota behind these fiery champions of womanhood, in exalted notions of its dignity and mission. We are as anxious as they can be, that woman should be roused to a sense of their own importance; but we affirm, that it is not so much social institutions that are wanting to women, as women who are wanting to themselves. We claim for them no less an office than that of instruments (under God,) for the regeneration of the world--restorers of God's image in the human soul. Can any of the warmest advocates of the political rights of woman, claim or exert for her a more exalted mission--a nobler destiny! That she will best accomplish this mission by moving in the sphere which God and nature have appointed, and not by quitting that sphere for another; it is the object of these pages to prove.

WOMAN'S INFLUENCE OUR COUNTRY.

......... The existing evil in our country, of youthful rebellion against all healthful authority, is now universally felt and complained of throughout the land.

Parents, guardians, and teachers, all feel the great difficulty in governing the spirits of this age. There seems to be an antagonistic feeling aroused the instant any restraining influence is exercised.

The great want of deference to elders, is remarked on by all intelligent foreigners visiting our shores, and very frequently unjustly attributed to our Republican institutions, and it is alledged by these casual sojourners that the children drink in with their first nourishment the very spirit of rebellion to all authority; may this reproach be removed in the future. But that domestic insubordination does now exist, from the palace-like residence of the merchant prince, to the humbled shed which covers the poor laborer's family, cannot be denied.

The plague spot is in our midst, and unless checked in its progress, will over-spread our land and infect our whole moral atmosphere.

The unrestrained public press is frequently a fearful medium of evil to the young. ....

And in this country more particularly than in any other is it

"A fountain, at which drink the good and wise,
An ever bubbling spring of endless lies;
Like Eden's dread probationary tree,
Knowledge of good and evil comes from thee."

Our daily papers are often replete with suggestive ideas most injurious to the young unformed mind; as they are read by them, and are a history of the times, editors should be most careful in excluding from their columns all that may contaminate.

Police reports should be excluded, as they are only annals of crime; and should be recorded in papers devoted to such painful evidences of human depravity. There is now a morbid curiosity excited to read these records--most contaminating to the purity of the youthful mind, and reprehensible in those who cater to this depraved taste.

Mental maturity in this country is remarkable; a fact well known to teachers, also a quickness for evil as well as for good, therefore requiring a more than ordinary care in the training of the young.

The vivid sensations and sensibility, with a powerful energy which generally accompany mental ability, if not early disciplined, and subjected to habits of self-government, will often betray its possessor into fearful ruin--and thus become the very source of evil.

Our climate also exercises an influence, it stimulates to activity, and is not suited to repose, the variations are so rapid that they continually excite new sensations and keep the nervous system disturbed; this, of course, applies to our temperate latitutde more particularly.

This physical fact should be borne in mind as having a moral influence, and consequently requiring a different mode of treatment in the rearing of the children of our country, from that of any other, as no precedents are applicable here.

This mental activity, if rightly directed, what may it not accomplish, disciplined and guided by judicious guardians; becoming a type of divine intelligence, bestowing moral and intellectual life by the progressive spirit of Christianity and civilization? But if allowed to continue it present baneful course,

"Become worse plagues than Pharoah's land befell,
Diffused, make earth a vestibule to hell."

The fearful effects of this misrule and insubordination in our youths, will be felt by future generations; for such spirits as are now scorning all domestic discipline, are not fitted to preserve inviolate that sacred trust left us by those who hazarded everything in planting on these shores that "gorgeous ensign of a Republic, known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced; its arms and trophies streaming in all their original luster. Not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing as its motto every where--spread all over in characters of living light--blazing on all its ample folds as they float over the sea, and over the land, and on every wind under the whole heavens, that sentiment dear to all American hearts,--Union and liberty--now, and for ever, one and inseparable!"

How can these young spirits now developing, appreciate the high and holy feelings of true liberty? they will be destitute of the required sensibility of principle, and the purity of honor, which must characterize not only the officiating priests at the altar of liberty, but all the votaries at her shrine.

..... America was born free-continued so in the cradle--but now when coming to maturity to be the example, and guide, is becoming a slave to the worst evils; and everything is to be feared in the future from the shackles now forging for that liberty which was born free from ecclesiastical adnd civil tyranny. ......

Are such characters now forming by the present regime?

We have had created for us a model republic--and might be an example not only for the nations of this age, but posterity to imitate. But from no morbid apprehensions is the conviction and the fact forced on the mind, that unless something is done to check this spreading contagious juvenile rebellion, the young pelicans will devour the parent who gave them life and nourishment, and American liberty become a reproach.

"The innocence of her character that won the hearts of all nations in her favor, may sound like a romance, and her inimitable virtue as if it has never been. The ruins of that liberty which thousands bled for, or suffered to obtain, may just furnish materials for a village tale, or extort a sigh from rustic sensibility; while the fashionables of that day enveloped as now is dissipation, shall deride the principle and deny the fact. When we now contemplate the fall of empires, and the extinction of the nations of the ancient world, we see but little to excite our regret more than the mouldering ruins of pompous palaces, magnificent monuments, walls, and towers of the most costly workmanship. But when the empire of America shall fall, the subject of contemplative sorrow will be infinitely greater than crumbling brass or marble can inspire. It will not then be said, here stood a temple of vast antiquity, here was a label of invisible height; but here! Ah, painful thought, the noblest work of human wisdom; the grandest scene of human glory; the fair cause of freedom rose and fell!"

And shall we, of this generation, see all our mighty men pass away, their mantles falling on one, without an effort made to stop the progress of this giant scourge, insubordination? Surely there are Davids in our midst who will come forth with sling and stone, and in the name of the Most High, take away this dreadful reproach from our land.

Great will be their honor! more to be admired than the deeds of the mighty heroes of Greece and Rome, so eulogized on the historic pages. For their monuments will be immortals, and their reward registered in the book of life. By them, shall not only our country be saved from this threatening evil, but generations kept from moral destruction.

At this period seems most particularly applicable the threatenings and denunciation of the prophet. "I will give children to be their princes; and babies shall rule over them, and the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient."

In no country is social influence so great as in this; here every avenue to distinction is open--no hereditary honors give precedence; each man is the architect of his own fortune; he enters into life in an age full of a progressive spirit, he may be by birth a stranger, and a scholar by charity, yet the adopted child of the republic; he can sit in the Senate chamber and give laws to the Union. Can anything be more important, with this fact borne in mind, than the healthful and judicious direction of the moral and mental powers of the child who is thus to aid in directly and governing the affairs of the Union, on which the weal or woe of the nation depends? And there is another consideration connected with this; the foreigners who flood our shores, bring with them feelings antagonistic to all rule and order; how can they, often without even the rudiments of education, train their offspring to be law-abiding citizens? In their own abodes, misrule reigns; generally very poor, they have no leisure for the cultivation of the heart's best feelings--for in their case poverty degrades human nature.

... There has been called into active exercise by this poverty, all the worst feelings of human nature; often ignorance is associated with superstition, and then, without the softening influence of Christianity, it is productive of moral degradation, and becomes one of the fruitful sources of evil in our land, from which we shall suffer most severely, unless some plan is speedily adopted to check its onward course.

The reform, it is true, must commence in the upper ranks of social life, but at the same time as an aid, let the poor and humble be cared for, and the heads, and hearts of the homeless children of poverty be elevated by a course of moral training; the influence of which, will be felt in the higher walks of life, by removing one of the vitiating sources of evil.

How can a parent expect the children of his solicitude and pride, to be pure and free from taint, when vice stalks abroad as now. ......

And children in their daily walks in a large city, will have their minds affected, if not polluted by the obscene and often profane language uttered by almost infant lips, whose childhood has been uncared for morally, mentally, and physically.

Never have the streets of our principal cities presented such sad evidence of juvenile depravity and total moral debasement. How much more appalling must that be which is not brought to view! Would it were only street children! For they have* adult associations in their Pandemonium haunts, (for homes they have not,) which is calculated to produce this result. The very fountain of their existence is impure, often intemperance reigns in these dens of misery and woe, "There they hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave the spider's web."

It is fully time that the standard was unfurled against the moral enemy.

"Let the sons of strangers build up our walls, and our gates be open continually to bring the forces of the Gentile, and it is good to bring the poor who are cast out to our houses." But let them be subjected to the restraint and dominion of the commanders. "For rulers are not a terror to good workers, but to evil doers."

Then, and then only, will violence be heard no more, and wasting, and destruction be no longer in our land.

MATERNAL DUTIES

......... MUCH depends on the American mother; she who teaches her sons and daughters how to die, has taught them how to live, life being only a preparation for the great end here. An anecdote is related by a clerical writer, of a woman whose husband it was well known had not proved faithful to his duties.

"My good woman," said the clergyman, "how is it, under all the adverse circumstances, you have succeeded so well in the education and training of your family of children, and your husband is an infidel?" "With the aid of my Bible alone; I never opposed the authority of a Father with that of a Mother, but always with that of God, my own was never brought forward, only the Bible; from their earliest years, my children have seen the Bible on my table, as my own guide of action; from this book they have received all their moral instructions; I was silent, but it always spoke, did they commit a fault, of did they perform a good action, I at once turned to the Book--it reproved, or commended, and encouraged; by this constant reference to the Bible, and thus avoiding all family altercations, I have effected that which surprises you."

Does this not show what woman can effect! She has been called a "universal power; her scepter ruling from the cradle to the grave; weakness regulating and directing strength. Her power is greater than any monarch's who has ever reigned."

Then how vitally important, in a maternal relation, is this power. From her fountain of life, the child receives its first nourishment; from her comes its first impressions--she is its first book, and from her comes all which is to elevate or degrade--she holds "the key to its infant soul," and if not used aright, fearful are the results. How awful to a reflecting is the idea, in contemplating the little being so dependent, nestling in her arms, and confidingly looking up to her--that the immortal happiness of that child is at her disposal, and on her moral training depends whether from those lips shall issue the praises and glory of the great first cause, or the sighs of anguish, with reproaches for maternal neglect. .........

A mother holds in her hands the great "moral lever." On her depends the strength of its virtue; and let her by unwearied watchfulness at her post, endeavor, so far as human means will permit, to fulfil the duties of her position. She will reap a rich harvest of love, gratitude, and dutifulness, if faithful; and will look forward to the period when, appearing at the awful tribunal of the great Judge, she can say, "Here am I, and the children thou hast given me." What a compensation for wearisome days and nights, for the self-denials and forbearance hourly to be practices, for the kind word of affectionate remonstrance instead of the impetuous and unkind expression.

For all this is does not require her to be a "DeStael," or a saint, but a rational, true hearted woman, who knows her duty, and knowing does it.

It is remarked that our American mothers are physically weak, that their debility unfits them often for their home duties. This need not be, if their physical education has been properly cared for. They are frequently enervated before marriage by a course of most reprehensible, fashionable dissipation, late hours, and imprudence in dress; the first exhausting their nervous systems, the latter sowing seeds for future suffering. Why are they taken to these market arenas at so early a period, before their constitutions are formed? American mothers are too much like Circassian parents in the training of their daughters. Christian mothers should be superior to such Mahomedan practices.

All these circumstances tend to produce the extreme delicacy so deplored; such women are unfit truly, morally, and physically, for mothers. Apart from the inefficiency of attending to their household duties, they entail a miserable, feeble constitution on their offspring, and thus perpetuate the evil.

Let a other, by her homes graces, render her fireside the most attractive place to her children; let it be a home where love and peace are the presiding deities--not drive them to seek comfort and amusements elsewhere by her complaining or ill times reprimands, but make them feel that their happiness and welfare is her first consideration; let her take an interest in their studies and pursuits; have her household so regulated that the family are not made uncomfortable by any strings being ajar, or screws loose, in the domestic instruments.

In fact, remembering she is to live with, and for her family, not the world, and that at home her duties centre; and that if she is not happy in the performance of those duties, no other excitements can render her so. She must learn "to be happy without witnesses, and content without panegyrists."

Let her desire the approbation of her own conscience, and that she surely will receive if "she presideth in her house, and there is peace; she commandeth wit judgment, and is obeyed; the care of her family is her whole delight ; to that alone she applieth her study, and elegance and frugality are seen in her mansion."

Let such be the testimony of American husbands and children.

WOMAN AND HER INFLUENCES.

........ WOMEN, in this favored land, have a heavy responsibility, for women give the moral tone to society. Very many feel this, and so far as their sphere will permit, endeavor to fulfil their duties. Did each individual woman do the same, the evils now so loudly calling for a remedy, would never have existed. Let that fact not deter the few from continuing in their path of usefulness. No matter how humble the position, let each true hearted woman add her mite to the treasury. Women are the keepers of the public morals, and by frowning down all derelictions from the path of morality in men, they fulfil a most important duty.

How often does society gloss over the moral aberrations of men, particularly if wealth and fashion throw their mantel around them, making a most unjust decree against the comparative required morals of man and woman. Sin is sin, no matter by whom committed. And too often do we see the young, pure minded woman, not only smile on the libertine, but allow herself to be whirled abut in the mazy dance, by one who has been the destroyer of female innocence. She may not know of his sinful course. But why allow females to associate with those whose characters are not well known? Never was there a period when the fireside required such vigilance as now; and the age is characterized by unlimited freedom of manners and intercourse. Our country is flooded by strangers, of whose previous character we can know but little. The married and single have duties imperative; duties requiring great moral courage, but necessary and incumbent on each individual woman, and from which there must be no flinching; and to make them effective, there must be added a living illustration of the duties inculcated. They must guard against the present Quixotic crusade of Woman's Rights, which is now causing some of the bright minds of our country to run to riot, and causes them to lose sight of their true home duties.

Let women leave the vexed questions of "Woman's Rights" and "Slavery," and turn to their firesides, and effect reforms there, and drive from our land, those worse slaveries, vice, intemperate excesses in living, and youthful rebellion, whose chains are now being riveted on us, and look to the rising generation, by regulating their own households, and making their homes happy and cradles for the virtues; then she would be fulfilling her legitimate mission, for "she who makes her husband and children happy, who reclaims one from vice, and trains up the other to virtue, is much more to be admired, and a greater character than ladies described in romance, and met with in fashionable life, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from the quiver of their eyes."

Never was more applicable the reply made by Madame Campan, "What is wanting," said Napoleon, "that the youth of France be well educated?"

"Mothers," replied Madame Campan.

"Here," said he, "is a system of education in one word."

She might have said true women also.

All the materials are in our land; they only want the right direction, and if each woman will only be faithful, the difficulty will soon be overcome.

As a mother, she considers the importance of the trust committed to her care, she feels that in giving life to a human being, she has assumed the responsibility of it proving a blessing or curse to herself and society; therefore, she much watch over its developments, repress the evil, and encourage the good, "for a wicked son is a reproach to his parents, but he that doeth right is an honor to their grey hairs," and in this she has a rich reward; her children rise up and call her blessed, "for she knew that foolishness was bound up in the heart of her child, but the rod of correction drove it from him, administered with love."

As a wife, as man's reasonable companion, not the toy of his leisure hours, she is his counselor and helper, and his support when the dark hours come and the storms gather; then she comes forth in all her woman's moral strength, soothes and comforts, while she nerves him to renewed action; prudence and judgment should be her characteristics, then he has confidence in her counsels, and reposes in her affections.

The single woman is, by some thoughtless persons, considered without influence, but such is not the case, for every woman has some one dependent on her, whose happiness may be promoted, and on whose path she may cast sunshine; by acts of well-time benevolence, she can make the widow's heart glad, and dry the orphan's tear; she has her niche in the social circle, either as a daughter, sister, or friend, and can dignify it even alone; home should likewise be to her a hallowed centre, from which she can send forth some of the heart's best affections without any one suffering by the loss--her feelings can be as healthful, although more diffused.

The world unjustly charges them with many characteristic peculiarities; in some instances this may be the case. These would have existed as a married woman, only they might have assumed another character, and have been more injurious in their results to a household; they are always the consequence of a badly regulated mind, and not occasioned by a single life; active employment is the great and only safeguard against peculiarities in every situation of life.

We should not live without an object, but always keep within the sphere of active life; it gives strength to our energies, which otherwise would waste for want of employment, sending out the affections like refreshing streams to the dry and parched earth, and by so doing, have flowers ever springing in our daily path, for, as we sow, we gather; and, in the performance of our duties, let us try and see the bright sunny places, not always the shadows cast by the clouds; mingle duty and cheerfulness, for this cheerful spirit lightens life's burden; if the single woman would bear in mind that, in endeavoring to grow old with moral grace, she lightens the burthen of age, and renders it ever attractive by keeping her feelings fresh, and in full play, she would not as now be considered so peculiar, and often called "disagreeable;" and the reproach which now rests on the sisterhood as a class, would be removed; and their usefulness increased by rendering themselves acceptable to the circles in which they move.

Want of occupation and not giving the feelings a right direction, produces disquiet, envy, and dissatisfaction with oneself, embitters the temper, and fills up the place which might be occupied with all the kindly charities of life. Idleness is the Upas Tree of social life. "For, form the fountains of our hearts shall rives rivers of goodness, and the streams shall overflow for the benefit of mankind." Let the American single woman fulfil the duties which lie around her, calling loudly for her assistance.

"She has the tiller in her hand, and may steer against the current, Or may glide down idly with the stream till her bark founder in the whirlpool."

To the gay votary of pleasure the appeal is in vain, for the butterfly of fashion flutters through life's precious hours with every vital energy quickened by vanity, and fed by flattery; a slave to fashion, whose chains once worn, unfit the wearer for the nobler purposes of life.

....... It is fully time that parents should be awake to their duties, and that the domestic hearth should be more carefully looked to and guarded. The consequences of this recklessness will be fearful on the next generation. It is sufficiently so now; but these are evils which do not correct themselves. How unfitted for wives and mothers, are the girls brought up under the present fashionable regime, unchecked by any healthful restraints, their better feelings all running to riot; subjected not even to mental school discipline, they will become vapid, heartless fashionists; a pretty plaything for men of the same caliber. What know they of domestic rule, which is founded on truth and love, and the practice of the social virtues?

Mothers seem sometimes to forget that babies become men and women, to whom they should not only be parents, but friends and counselors, and agreeable companions. An economist of time will always find leisure for mental improvement, without neglecting any domestic duties, which have her first claim; she has so strong an incentive, that she makes the opportunity, and seizes it as it occurs.

In the mental training of her children she is providing them with a companion which no changes of fortune can effect, no misfortune depress or alienate, a never failing friends for the fireside, an endorsement to the best society, and a safeguard against loneliness and vice, for they who take delight in conversing with the sages of the past and the good of modern times, have no desire for the society of the low and vicious.

What a noble office is woman's, when rightly understood and faithfully performed! in her social position she is a star of peace, shining for those alone, who are dependant on her for happiness and comfort; here quiet influence is felt, not heard; the very tones of her voice often prove a balm to the wounded spirit, and aided by that wonderful gift "tact," she can minister to a mind diseased and chafed by the world's contentions and wearied with the selfishness of human nature; and she can refresh, and strengthen to good purpose, man in his pilgrimage.

Who is not made better by (conversation) with a virtuous, intelligent, practical woman? her influence is much greater than the discourses of the most brilliant orator on morals, whose life is not always in accordance with the precepts and counsels he gives; but if she is a true woman, and lives out her principles, and practices them daily, forbearing with the faults and infirmities of those of her household, and keeps a strict watch over her own heart, knowing its weaknesses, she then elevates man by her example, is his friend, and by deserving his approbation rules his heart.

Very many of our most distinguished men, of the past and present age, have proudly traced their noblest qualities to their mother's teachings. "Our own Washington," ever referred to his revered mother and her training, with gratitude and affection. .....

We hear wives sometimes complaining of their want of influence with their husbands; this frequently arises from their deficiency in judgments with regard to the time and manner of exercising this influence; let a wife by her own careful deportment, secure the respect and affection of her husband, for her position includes the offices of a friend, as well as the duties of a wife; occasions will arise when she may be required to strengthen him by example, to be at peace with himself and become reconciled to a brother man, or to overcome adversity. Woman often requires these tests to prove her moral power, and to bring forth traits of character not possessed by man. As to ruling, or the exercise of power on either side, such words should have no place in the matrimonial vocabulary. An honorable, high-minded man ever feels and acknowledges the healthful influence of a good wife; not in words, they cost nothing, but in the respect, and deference ever shown; he receives her quiet suggestions in a deferential manner, and listens to them as though he considers them worthy his consideration, for he knows their value. "For the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her," for he has been by experience, made to feel that "Those who obey not the word, may, without the word, by won by the wife."

As he in daily (activity) beholds "her chaste conversation, coupled with fear and the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, and temperance;" and she has realized that her "husband in known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land." But if she is not faithful, she will prove to him a stumbling block and a snare. As a sister, she holds a responsible position. If the eldest, it is peculiarly important that she should be faithful; she gives an influence to the family circle. They consider her the exampler, and watch her closely. She should be the mother's aid, sharing in the domestic duties and care; be her counselor on difficult occasions; her representative when absent, or an invalid. She can by example lighten the domestic trials of training. A word from her, fitly and tenderly spoken, may be engraven on their little hearts, never to be obliterated. A rebellious brother can be brought to a sense of his undutifulness by her affectionate remonstrance, thus creating in his little heart, a new tie of love for that sister, as she has an ever willing ear to listen to his little cares and annoyances. She is his friend; he "loves sister!" and therefore would not pain her by his naughtiness. The evil one is driven out of him by love, much sooner than the rod could have conquered. Kinds words, no doubt, sometimes cost much, but there is an ample compensation in the sweet return of affection they will bring; and the oldest born of a family, is continually called upon to make sacrifices of feeling and inclination. She is elevated morally by these subjugations of self; and although the schooling may cost many a bitter struggle with self-love, in having its rights invaded, yet all must be done to give the kind word when the infringements occur, instead of the irritated reply of resentment, which will only give rise to fresh cause for annoyances, and often creates family bickerings, which always alienate the affections.

.... "Patience has been called the physician of infancy," and it is very necessary that the child should very early be subjected to the regimen; and in this a sister's kind love can be employed most effectively, in correcting all those distempers of the mind, which develop at an early age, and show themselves in a variety of forms, and which a sister's loving eye can watch over, and check in the waywardness of boyhood; her moral suasion should be sustained by love, not authority.

Boyhood is all too uncared for. There is something very attractive in a fine, manly boy, full of hope and youthful spirit, the world all bright before him, full of plans of enjoyment for the present, frank and trusting; and if there is consideration shown fro him at the fireside, and he feels that he is understood, and he is taught to be generous and courageous, then he grows up with a full sense of the dignity of his nature. Many a bold, iron-hearted, bad man, has been rendered so by unkindness at home, by some severity and harshness suffered in boyhood; the first best feelings of his young heart have thus been chilled by unkindness, and the whole inner nature changed and embittered; for if the young affections of the heart are blighted, they bloom not again. ...

As a daughter, woman may accomplish much--now in many cases she seems to entirely lose sight of her true position; how painful, and even disgusting, in these modern days, it is to see the young ladies of the family lounging in the drawing-room, in full fashionable costume, receiving or else preparing for visitors, or entertaining brainless young fops, which the mother is the household drudge, wearing out the remnant of her days in endeavoring to have these daughters "genteel," or obtain for them establishments; this is no exaggerated picture, many, very many such cases are known by the writer.

Instead of these daughters assisting in household duties, now deemed so vulgar by the aspiring young ladies to fashion, and lightening the labors of her who gave them life, they are absorbed with frivolous pursuits, unfitting them for all the duties of life, and rendering themselves contemptible in the eyes of the sensible and practical, who would respect them for attending to those now so despised occupations.

In no country where Christianity has placed woman in her proper position, are domestic avocations considered unlady-like, but in our own; and here she should be peculiarly domestic, as here her influence is to be exercised. A writer has rather severely said, but really the times almost justify it, "That in these days girls are educated so completely for saloon life, that they get the habits of courtesans, and will, if they continue, revive in this, the nineteenth century, the saloon days of Louis XIV., for the folly and levity of the one sex, will degrade the other." Adulation and flattery will unfit her for the incumbent duties of life, and should these giddy girls realize their prevailing idea, matrimony, and take into the keeping the happiness of another, how can they fulfil the trust reposed; they may have obtained a husband, and an establishment, but he is not prepared to correct those defects fostered by his own inconsiderateness. "He who fastens a chain on a slave, rivets the other end around his own neck."