CHAPTER XII.

THE TRUE POSITION OF WOMAN.

The Eolian Harp. Golden Links in the Chain of Life. Rough Diamond polished. Her True Position. They make us. New Stars. Man cannot do it. Her Perfect Love. Gray's Filial Love. Home-loving Queen. Where Aristocracy begins. Light of the Household. To save rather than earn. Real Friendship. A Great Mistake. The

Noble Woman. Another Woman's Heart. The Pleasant Surprise. Soft Star of Love. Honour to Old Age. Peculiar Protection. Rights of Women. Five Sisters. A Little "Larning." Mrs Kennicott. Woman appreciated.

WHATEVER be the end for which we train up character, it has been made plain, I trust, that it needs much faithful training. We sometimes hear of a character that breaks out upon the world without much discipline, that is great and symmetrical: so the Eolian harp may now and then throw out notes of sur

216 GOLDEN LINKS IN THE CHAIN OF LIFE.

passing tone, and that vibrate strongly upon the heart; but is that instrument, after all, to be compared to the well-tuned piano, on which both science and skill have exhausted their efforts?

It is sometimes said that our daughters are better educated than our sons,-especially, if the sons do not obtain a classical education; that almost universally, a girl of the same standing, and in the same family, is better educated than her brothers, and that when she marries, she is often thought to be stooping, and to be uniting herself to a man whose education is inferior to her own. Now, two things are to be considered; first, that a part of her apparent education is mere tinsel, and will wear off shortly, while he has no tinsel. We all can think of ladies, who, in their school days, could draw, paint, play, or sing, and these gave them prominence then; but amid the cares and anxieties and constant demands of life, they have had no time or taste to keep bright these golden links of the chain of life. Shew us the married lady who does not prefer her beautiful children to any drawing of the

ROUGH DIAMOND POLISHED.

217

human head, and the flowers of her nursery to any bouquet that can be painted in watercolours. And how seldom does a married lady of forty or of fifty excel on the piano? On the contrary, that young man who seemed so awkward, and so unrefined, begins his education now. He is at the head of a family, has to plan to support it, has to see all sorts of people, and his whole life is a continued education; so that by the time that he is forty or fifty years old, you find him manly, intelligent, shrewd, and in the possession of real character. You wonder how it is that he is so much more than he promised, on setting out in life, to become. His education, of necessity, continues, while the woman's in a great measure stops. At starting in life, we often wonder at her superiority. At forty-five, we wonder at his,—often, certainly. The reason is plain. He must improve by contact with the world. The rough diamond is rolled against others till it must receive a polish, while she is so absorbed in the cares of her family, that her education, as such, seems to stop.

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HER TRUE POSITION.

If these views are correct, then the inference is unavoidable, that the daughter at starting in life ought to be better educated than her brother or husband. She ought to have more capital laid up, for she will be called upon to use it more constantly, without having so good an opportunity to increase it as he has. I cannot sympathize with the cry that is often raised that our daughters are better educated than our sons. I doubt whether it be true, unless you call polish education, and then it is true. But the wear and tear of life is unequal upon the two sexes, and we need have no great fear that she will get too much the start of her more slowly developed brother.

woman.

And this leads me to the true position of On this point it would be very easy to say some very smart things, to ridicule some very ancient notions, to admire some very modern theories, to laugh at pretension, and to scold outrageously at what is called old prejudices.

I do not assert that woman, even in Christian society, of which only I am speaking, has found her true position. I do not say that

her voice has not hitherto been too much confined within doors,-that she may not do far more than she ever has done by teaching and authorship. I believe she will ; and I yield to no one in my estimate of her power in the world, or in the belief that, under the light of the Bible, her influence in the world is not less than that of the other sex. But from her very constitution and nature, from her peculiar sensibilities and tenderness, it seems to me that the great mission of woman is to take the world-the whole world-in its very infancy, when most pliable and most susceptible, and lay the foundations of human character. Human character, in all its interests and relations and destinies, is committed to woman, and she can make it, shape it, mould it, and stamp it just as she pleases. There is no other period of life when character is formed so decidedly and so permanently as during childhood. I maintain that we are just what the ladies have made us to be. If they want us to be wiser, more discreet, more amiable, more lofty, or more humble, why do they not make us so ? There is no earthly being