and sisters and daughters, attend to the thousand sweet offices of
home.
When at last we come to calculate the forces that decided the destiny
of nations, it will be found that the mightiest and grandest influence
came from home, where the wife cheered up despondency and fatigue and
sorrow by her own sympathy, and the mother trained her child for
heaven, starting the little feet on the path to the celestial city;
and the sisters by their gentleness refined the manners of the
brother; and the daughters were diligent in their kindness to the
aged, throwing wreaths of blessing on the road that leads father and
mother down the steep of years. Need I go into history to find you
illustrations? Ah no; in your own memory there was at least one such!
When I come to speak of womanly influence, my mind always wanders off
to