to display its delicacy, its sweetness, its gentle or sometimes heroic
virtues, its amiable weaknesses, and strange defects--than to attempt an
accurate analysis of the hardest subject man ever attempted to master,
viz--WOMAN.
It will be seen that we do not set down Woman as a cipher in the account
of human beings. We accord to her her full share of importance in the
world, and we have not attempted to relieve her from a sense of her
responsibility as an accountable being. Above all, we have not failed to
impress upon her the obligations she is under to CHRISTIANITY, whose
benign influences have raised her to be the companion and bosom-friend
of man, instead of his mere handmaid and dependant. It is religion that
must form such a character as the following, which though applied by
Pope to one of the most accomplished women of his time, is that of a
CHRISTIAN WIFE in every age and station,--
"Oh! blest with temper whose unclouded ray
Can make tomorrow cheerful as to-day:
She who can love a sister's charms, or hear
Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;
She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules;
Charms by accepting--by submitting sways,
Yet has her humor most, when she obeys."
By causing the character of woman to be more thoroughly discussed and
better understood;--by making it more frequently the theme of rational
meditation to the young and ardent, who, from the force of defective
education, are apt to regard all "the sex," beyond a very limited
circle, as mere accessaries to animal enjoyment,--whose peace they may
wound without compunction, and whose happiness they may peril without
reflection,--we feel that we shall do both sexes a good service, and one
for which as they advance in life, and in their turn become husbands,
wives and parents, they will thank our little book, as having helped
them to know themselves and each other.