352 



The Wife. 



Vol. VI. 



The Wife. 



" While f lie unlettered nationa of the earth have 

 either deified woman as a goddess or debased her as a 

 slave, we are delighted to accept her as the honoured 

 companion of our homes and the pride and ornament 

 of our assemblies. At her feet do we learn lessons of 

 mental refinement and moral sensibility ; and this is no 

 ideal compliment or vain pretence, to f ister her pride or 

 feed her vanity, but the sincere conviction of every 

 mind susceptible of truth. When the tide of woman's 

 influence is turned to the upbuilding of our societies, 

 of whatever name, we ask no surer token of success ; 

 with it, our highest anticipations are realized — without 

 it, our strongest efforts are paralyzed. I care not how 

 great, how difficult and discouraging the enterprise; 

 woman has courage and perseverance adequate to its 

 accomplishment." — Col. A. Morton. 



There is something' enigmatical in the 

 relative position of the wife, and yet the lines 

 of office and duty are distinctly drawn in na- 

 ture. It perhaps may be said with truth, that 

 she is the equal of her husband in nothing ; 

 in all things, she is either his superior or in- 

 ferior. In physical strength, inferior; in 

 symmetry and beauty, superior. In intellect, 

 she has more imagination, vivacity and bril- 

 liancy; less power of reasoning and acuteness 

 in argument; but in moral sensibility she is 

 greatly the superior; in power of persuasion, 

 if not argument, she holds a controlling influ- 

 ence. She can most readily find the way to 

 the heart, and easily subdues it; but when she 

 leaves the moral and gentle means of exer- 

 cising control, and assumes to command, she 

 must always expect to find a master. By 

 courtesy, everything she asks will be granted, 

 her wants will be anticipated. But when 

 she assumes to be a man, or to take the place 

 of a man, she transcends her sphere, and re- 

 sembles a star thrown from its orbit, its laws 

 of motion subverted, and its position doubtful. 

 Let her, in the retired position assigned her 

 by the gospel, be satisfied with her legitimate 

 and proper influence, and she may appear the 

 superior in everything praiseworthy, without 

 exciting jealousy, and without dispute. 



From her very weakness, from her purity 

 and tenderness, from her great freedom from 

 the causes of irritation, her husband learns to 

 respect her decisions in morals and religion, 

 and his conscience comes in aid of the influ- 

 ence she seeks to exert over him. She in- 

 fluences him as an angel of light and love. 

 He may, in the pride of his heart, hate the 

 gospel, and despise the cause of the poor, but 

 he will go to church with her, and freely put 

 his iiand in his pocket to supply lior charities. 

 She is the weaker vessel, and yet she is 

 strongest. He may rage in giant strength 

 against the objects of his hatred, and yet let 

 her interpose, and she holds his arm nerveless, 

 like the arm of a child. While she is gentle, 



kind, affectionate, devoted, true, the mother 

 of his children and their guardian angel, she 

 holds him by a silken cord, which is stronger 

 than a cable, stronger than the chains of the 

 slave, because it entwines his heart, it binds 

 the aflections, which are the seat and motive 

 power of tiie will. While, therefore, in the 

 pride of his power, he opposes force by force, 

 toward lier he is all kindness and condescen- 

 sion. But let her assume the tone of a dic- 

 tator, and of masculine command ; let her talk 

 of " woman's rights," and write a code of 

 laws to define them anywhere but in the heart 

 — the common law of the soul — and she ap- 

 pears shorn of her locks, which are " her or- 

 naments;" she abjures her womanhood, she 

 affects the man, and must contend with men. 



No — the proper sphere of woman is home. 

 Her great office in the social system is to 

 make that home a happy one to her husband, 

 that his aflections may centre there — that he 

 may have no temptations to wander, and may 

 always hasten to return to it. Let her train 

 her children so that they may be the pride of 

 their father, so that he may love to own them, 

 and be not ashamed to show them as the jew- 

 els of his country. Let her always stand 

 ready to receive him with complacency after 

 his conflicts with the world, when his brow 

 is knit with care, when his heart has been 

 rudely convulsed by contact with treachery, 

 dishonesty, or abuse, and his passions are 

 striving for mastery ; then, from her still and 

 quiet retreat, from her communion with the 

 innocent spirits of her nursery, from her closet 

 of prayer, which opens to heaven, let her meet 

 him like a ministering angel, and he will lie 

 at her feet like a tamed lion; he will imbibe 

 from her something of her own spirit, and his 

 spirit will be chastened under such a ministry. 



Here lies the great strength of the wife: 

 here is her high, honourable, and honoured 

 sphere of action — whore men are made, mould- 

 ed, controlled — not where they contend, and 

 cherish the angry passions. Does she seek 

 for honour ] It lies in the honour she ren- 

 ders to her husband; in her children, edu- 

 cated, and led to paths of usefulness and hea- 

 ven; in the domestic arrangements, the ad- 

 miration of all. Does she seek for happiness? 

 Where can she find it but in a peaceful homel 

 The wife was appointed to make a home for 

 man, to form a centre for his aflections, and 

 bind them there; to act constantly as oil upon 

 the troubled waters of life. 



I lately saw a scene for a painter, exem- 

 plifying most clearly the position of the wife. 

 Two men had become violently enraged, and 

 sought each other with deadly weapons. I 

 trembled for the issue. But as they came 

 near, their arms fell powerless, find their 

 voices of anger softened. I pressed through 

 the crowd, and saw a female figure, like the 



