A MOTHER'S VIEW OF "WOMAN'S RIGHTS."
Mrs. Maxon read the diary and returned it to Dolores the night previous
to her departure. But in the hurry and excitement incident to the
occasion, she found no suitable opportunity for a long motherly talk
with the young lady, as she had hoped. She merely said, as she returned
the book:
"I am glad you permitted me to read this, Dolores. It has enabled me to
better understand your strange repugnance for marriage. Your mother was
an unwilling parent, and your nature is impregnated with the rebellious
feelings which filled her heart and brain. I hope you will outgrow them,
however, and anchor yourself in a happy home. I could wish for you no
greater joy than a married life as congenial and pleasant as my own."
After Dolores's departure, Helena referred to the subject of the diary.
"Dolores told me that you read it, Mamma, and I am really curious to
know the contents of that mysterious book. She used to refer to it so
often, and one time she would have shown it to me, because she said it
contained truths which I ought to know; but I would not read it without
your permission. Was Dolores's mother a greatly wronged woman, Mamma?
and was her husband so very unkind to her? Dolores seemed to almost
loathe his memory, and I fancied he must have been a very cruel man."
Mrs. Maxon took Helena's hand and drew her down on a low ottoman at her
side. They were quite alone.
"No, my child," she said, gravely; "Mr. King was not a cruel man, and
Mrs. King was not a greatly wronged woman. But their marriage was not a
true and holy one, according to my idea of that sacred relation. In the
early pages of the diary, written just before and just after the
marriage, the young bride speaks constantly of her pride in having made
a brilliant alliance. It seems she bettered her condition in a worldly
sense, by her marriage, and it was this ambition, rather than a great
love, which led to the union. During the first few months, the diary
abounds with references to receptions, dinners, balls, where she had
been admired and courted. Then begins a series of wild, despairing
complaints against Providence and her husband and the world. Bitter,
unreasoning denunciations of the marriage tie, and mournful regrets, as
weak as useless, for her lost freedom. All this was occasioned by the
knowledge that she was to become a mother. Her emotions seemed to
culminate in violent anger toward her husband, and resentful wrath at a
social system which she said was more brutal than the laws which govern
brutes; since they are never compelled to bring undesired offspring into
the world, with every instinct crying out against it. Almost insane with
the intensity of these emotions, it is no wonder her daughter's mind was
impressed with them. Now, my sweet child," continued Mrs. Maxon, drawing
Helena closer to her side, "all this is very strange to you, I know,
but it is a subject of vast importance to all our sex--to all the world;
and I think you are at an age when you ought to understand it fully."
"That is what Dolores said, Mamma," interrupted Helena. "She said I
ought to know these things, and she wanted me to read the diary."
"Yes, but I am glad you did not read it," her mother replied. "It would
be like looking for a reflection of your own sweet face in a broken
mirror. The diary presented important facts for your consideration, to
be sure, but it presented them in a diseased and unnatural form. The
subject of marriage and maternity, as treated in the diary, would have
alarmed and shocked you, while in reality they are as sacred and
beautiful as religion. It is of the utmost importance that our girls and
women should think upon these subjects, and think of them as natural and
holy events, before taking upon themselves the duties of wives and
mothers. But it would have been a matter of lasting regret to me if you
had gained your first ideas of these momentous questions from the
diary. It is by her own mother a girl should be taught to understand
these things in all their beauty and solemnity.
"In the case of Mrs. King, her first great error lay in the wrong motive
which led to her marriage. It was ambition--not love or respect; and
motherhood she regarded as a misfortune. She was evidently a woman of
strong feeling, and therefore more capable of influencing the mind of
her offspring. The child came into the world with the same intense
hatred of the father, and rebellion against marriage, which had filled
her mother's heart all these months."
"How very strange!" mused Helena, bewildered.
"Yes, strange, beautiful and terrible in the responsibility it places
upon our sex, Helena. We make or mar the character of our offspring,
often, by the thoughts we entertain during the prenatal period of their
existence. You know I am an advocate for the widest education of woman;
for her having all the doors of the professions, and arts, and trades,
flung open to her, if she chooses to fit herself to enter them. Yet I
am surprised and pained, often, as I see so many of the most interested
and zealous workers in this cause, ignoring or misusing the grand and
wonderful right and duty, ordained by heaven for woman--the right of
moulding the mind, temper, and character of her children. You know,
dear, do you not, the world-wide reputation which ancient Greece had in
its glory for the beauty of its people?"
"Oh, yes. I learned all about that at school. The Greeks were the
handsomest people--the most perfect, physically, I suppose--of any race
which ever existed."
"Yes, that is true, Helena. And now let me tell you the cause of this.
In Greece, a woman who was to become a mother was guarded from every
annoyance, or pain, or peril; she was regarded by her husband, and by
all men, as a divine being, chosen by God as a holy messenger from His
very courts. She was surrounded by beautiful paintings, music,
literature, and an atmosphere of love and homage. It is no wonder that
the Greeks became the most beautiful people in the world. But as time
passed, all this changed. Men failed to hold women in such
reverence--and then Greece _fell_; and its glory, and the beauty of its
people, became only a thing of the past. There is an old mythological
tale that the soul of a man who maltreats a woman at this time goes into
an owl's body when he dies, and remains there through three generations.
But in our own country, I think women maltreat themselves more
frequently. Every wrong impulse, every unkind thought or act that enters
into a woman's heart, during this sacred period, should be guarded
against and dispelled, with caution and with prayer. To listen to fine
music, to look upon lovely objects, to enjoy agreeable surroundings,
these things are not always within reach of a woman. But efforts at
self-command, and an unselfish forethought for the future of the child,
and prayer--the humblest can employ these means to the desired end.
Prayer is the key to heaven. It admits us to the sacrament of angels. In
God's vast Government he has constantly a deputy of angels who guard
each human being. If we appeal to them, they redouble their efforts to
help and strengthen us. If we neglect and ignore them, they finally grow
disheartened and turn to more willing souls. It is my belief that there
are no heights of moral grandeur we can not attain, if we are vigilant
in prayer. I want you to remember that many of our criminals, are the
results of a mother's attempt to destroy her helpless child. The
murderous impulse was imparted to the defenseless little creature, a
seed that blossomed into rank crime. Many an unruly and defiant son, who
breaks his mother's heart, by his disobedience and rebellion, could lay
the cause at his mother's door.
"Never was a child more eagerly longed for than your own sweet self,
Helena. My heart overflowed with happiness, all during those months of
expectancy. As a consequence, your own nature is full of joy and
sunshine, and you have been a comfort and a blessing to me always. Yet I
was ignorant of any great responsibility at that time. Not till later in
life did I obtain the knowledge, which is of far more value to our young
women graduates, than all the horrors of vivisection with which so many
of them are familiar.
"And now, good night, my daughter. Remember that these subjects should
never be discussed lightly or irreverently; they are holy, and sacred,
and beautiful; they are part of religion, for they pertain to the divine
mysteries of our existence."