voluntary attendance at the theatre or the race-course is not in a
degree exposed to the solemn denunciation uttered by the Saviour against
those who cause others to offend.[96] Can that relaxation be a part of
the education to fit us for our eternal home which is regardless of
danger to the spiritual interests of others, and acts upon the spirit of
the haughty remonstrance of Cain--"Am I my brother's keeper?"[97] For
all the details of this argument, I refer you to Wilberforce's
"Practical View of Christianity." Many other writers besides have
treated this subject ably and convincingly; but none other has ever been
so satisfactory to my own mind: I think it will be so to yours. I am
aware that much may be said in defence of the expediency of the
amusements to which I refer; and as there is a certainty that both of
them, or others of a similar nature, will meet with general support
until "the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord and of
his Christ,"[98] it is a compensatory satisfaction that they are neither
of them without their advantages to the general welfare of the country;
that good is mixed with their evil, as well as brought out of their
evil. This does not, however, serve as an excuse for those who, having
their mind and judgment enlightened to see the dangers to others and the
temptations to themselves of attending such amusements, should still
disfigure lives, it may be, in other respects, of excellence and
usefulness, by giving their time, their money, and their example to
countenance and support them. Wo to those who venture to lay their
sinful human hands upon the complicated machinery of God's providence,
by countenancing the slightest shade of moral evil, because there may be
some accompanying good! We cannot look forward to a certain result from
any action: the most virtuous one may produce effects entirely different
from those which we had anticipated; and we can then only fearlessly
leave the consequences in the hands of God, when we are sure that we
have acted in strict accordance with His will. Does it become the
servant of God voluntarily to expose herself to hear contempt and
blasphemy attached to the Holy Name and the holy things which she loves;
to see on the stage an awful mockery of prayer itself, on the
race-course the despair of the ruined gambler and the debasement of the
drunkard? The choice of the scenes you frequent now, of the company you
keep now, is of an importance involved in the very nature of things,
and not dependent alone on the expressed will of God. It is only the
pure in heart who can see God.[99] It is only those who have here
acquired a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light[100] who
can enjoy its possession.
It is almost entirely in this point of view that I have urged upon you
the close consideration of the permanent influences of every present
action. At your age, and with your inexperience, I know that there is an
especial aptness to deceive one's-self by considering the case of those
who, after leading a gay life for many years, have afterwards become the
most zealous and devoted servants of God. That such cases are to be met
with, is to the glory of the free grace of God: but what reason have you
to hope that you should be among this small number? Having once wilfully
chosen the pleasures of this life as your portion, on what promise do
you depend ever again to be awakened to a sense of the awful alternative
of fulfilling your baptismal vows, by renouncing the pomps and vanities
of the world, or becoming a withered branch of the vine into which you
were once grafted--a branch whose end is to be burned?
Without urging further upon you this hackneyed, though still awful
warning, let me return once more to the peculiar point of view in which
I have, all along, considered the subject; namely, that each present act
and feeling, however momentary may be its indulgence, is an inevitable
preparation for eternity, by becoming a part of our never-dying moral
nature. You must deeply feel how much this consideration adds to the
improbability of your having any desires whatever to become the servant
of God some years hence, and how much it must increase in future every
difficulty and every unwillingness which you at present experience.
Let us, however, suppose that God will still be merciful to you at the
last; that, after having devoted to the world during the years of your
youth that love, those energies, and those powers of mind which had been
previously vowed to his holier and happier service, he will still in
future years send you the grace of repentance; that he will effect such
a change in your heart and mind, that the world does not only become
unsatisfactory to you,--which is a very small way towards real
religion,--but that to love and serve God becomes to you the one thing
desirable above all others. Alas! it is even then, in the very hour of
redeeming mercy, of renewing grace, that your severest trials will
begin. Then first will you thoroughly experience how truly it is "an
evil thing and bitter, to forsake the Lord your God."[101] Then you will
find that every late effort at self-denial, simplicity of mind and
purpose, abstinence from worldly excitements, &c., is met, not only by
the evil instincts which belong to our nature, but by the superinduced
difficulty of opposing confirmed habits.
Smoothly and tranquilly flows on the stream of habit, and we are unaware
of its growing strength until we try to erect an obstacle in its course,
and see this obstacle swept away by the long-accumulating power of the
current.
In truth, all those who have wilfully added the power of evil habits to
the evil tendencies of their fallen nature must expect "to go mourning
all the days of their life." It is only to those who have served the
Lord from their youth that "wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and
all her paths peace." To others, though by the grace of God they may be
finally saved, there is but a dreary prospect until the end come. They
must ever henceforth consult their safety by denying themselves many
pleasant things which the well-regulated mind of the habitually pious
may find not only safe but profitable. At the same time they sorrowfully
discover that they have lost all taste for those entirely simple
pleasures with which the path of God's obedient children is abundantly
strewn. Their path, on the contrary, is rugged, and their flowers are
few: their sun seldom shines; for they themselves have formed clouds out
of the vapours of earth, to intercept its warming and invigorating
radiance: what wonder, then, if some among them should turn it back into
the bright and sunny land of self-indulgence, now looking brighter and
more alluring than ever from its contrast with the surrounding gloom?
Let not this dangerous risk be yours. While yet young--young in habits,
in energies, in affections, devote all to the service of the best of
masters. "The work of righteousness," even now, through difficulties,
self-denial, and anxieties, will be "peace, and the effect thereof
quietness and assurance for ever."[102]
FOOTNOTES:
[89] 1 Cor. viii. 13.
[90] Matt. xviii. 6, 7.
[91] Milnes.
[92] Keble.
[93] French.
[94] James i. 12.
[95] 1 John v. 19.
[96] Matt. xviii. 6, 7.
[97] Gen. iv. 9.
[98] Rev. xi. 15.
[99] Matt. v. 8.
[100] Col. i. 12.
[101] Jer. ii. 19.
[102] Isa. xxxii. 19.
THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN ON SOCIETY.[103]
"Whatever may be the customs and laws of a country, women always give
the tone to morals. Whether slaves or free, they reign, because their
empire is that of the affections. This influence, however, is more or
less salutary, according to the degree of esteem in which they are
held:--they make men what they are. It seems as though Nature had made
man's intellect depend upon their dignity, as she has made his happiness
depend upon their virtue. This, then, is the law of eternal
justice,--man cannot degrade woman without himself falling into
degradation: he cannot elevate her without at the same time elevating
himself. Let us cast our eyes over the globe! Let us observe those two
great divisions of the human race, the East and the West. Half the old
world remains in a state of inanity, under the oppression of a rude
civilization: the women there are slaves; the other advances in
equalization and intelligence: the women there are free and honoured.
"If we wish, then, to know the political and moral condition of a
state, we must ask what rank women hold in it. Their influence embraces
the whole life. A wife,--a mother,--two magical words, comprising the
sweetest sources of man's felicity. Theirs is the reign of beauty, of
love, of reason. Always a reign! A man takes counsel with his wife; he
obeys his mother; he obeys her long after she has ceased to live, and
the ideas which he has received from her become principles stronger even
than his passions.
"The reality of the power is not disputed; but it may be objected that
it is confined in its operation to the family circle: as if the
aggregate of families did not constitute the nation! The man carries
with him to the forum the notions which the woman has discussed with him
by the domestic hearth. His strength there realizes what her gentle
insinuations inspired. It is sometimes urged as matter of complaint that
the business of women is confined to the domestic arrangements of the
household: and it is not recollected that from the household of every
citizen issue forth the errors and prejudices which govern the world!
"If, then, there be an incontestable fact, it is the influence of women:
an influence extended, with various modifications, through the whole of
life. Such being the case, the question arises, by what inconceivable
negligence a power of universal operation has been overlooked by
moralists, who, in their various plans for the amelioration of mankind,
have scarcely deigned to mention this potent agent. Yet evidence,
historical and parallel, proves that such negligence has lost to mankind
the most influential of all agencies. The fact of its existence cannot
be disputed; it is, therefore, of the greatest importance that its
nature should be rightly understood, and that it be directed to right
objects."[104]
It would not be uninteresting to trace the action and reaction by which
women have degraded and been degraded--alternately the source and the
victims of mistaken social principles; but it would be foreign to the
design and compass of this work to do so. The subject, indeed, would
afford matter for a philosophical treatise of deep interest, rather than
for a chapter of a small work. A rapid historical sketch, and a few
deductions which seem to bear upon the main point, are all that can be
here attempted.
The gospel announced on this, as on every other subject, a grand
comprehensive principle, which it was to be the work of ages (perhaps of
eternity) to develop. The rescue of this degraded half of the human race
was henceforth the ascertained will of the Almighty. But a long series
of years were to elapse before this will worked out its issues. Its
decrees, with the noble doctrines of which it formed a part, lay buried
beneath the ruins of human intellect. But they were only buried, not
destroyed; and rose, like wildflowers on a ruined edifice, to adorn the
irregularity which they could not conceal. The fantastic institutions of
chivalry which it is now the fashion to deride (how unjustly!) were
among the first scions of this plant of heavenly origin. They bore the
impress of heaven, faint and distorted indeed, but not to be mistaken!
Devotion to an ideal good,--self-sacrifice,--subjugation of selfish and
sensual feelings; wherever these principles are found, disguised,
disfigured though they be, they are not of the earth,--earthly. They,
like the fabled amaranth, are plants which are not indigenous here
below! The seeds must come from above, from the source of all that is
pure, of all that is good! Of these principles the gospel was the remote
source: women were the disseminators. "Shut up in their castellated
towers, they civilized the warriors who despised their weakness, and
rendered less barbarous the passions and prejudices which themselves
shared."[105] It was they who directed the savage passions and brute
force of men to an unselfish aim, the defence of the weak, and added to
courage the only virtue then recognised--humanity. "Thus chivalry
prepared the way for law, and civilization had its source in
gallantry."[106]
At this epoch, the influence of women was decidedly beneficial; happy
for them and for society if it had continued to be so! If we attempt to
trace the source of this influence, we shall find it in the intellectual
equality of the two sexes; equally ignorant of what we call knowledge,
the respect due by men to virtue and beauty was not checked by any
disdain of real or fancied superiority on their part.
The intellectual exercises (chiefly imaginative) of the time, so far
from forming a barrier between the two sexes, were a bond of union. The
song of the minstrel was devoted to the praise of beauty, and paid by
her smile. The spirit of the age, as imbodied in these effusions, is
the best proof of the beneficial influence exercised over that age by
our sex. In them, the name of woman is not associated in the degrading
catalogue of man's pleasures, with his bottle and his horse, but is
coupled with all that is fair and pure in nature,--the fields, the
birds, the flowers; or high in virtue or sentiment,--with honour, glory,
self-sacrifice.
To the age of chivalry succeeded the revival of letters; and (strange to
say!) this revival was any thing but advantageous to the cause of women.
Men found other paths to glory than the exercise of valour afforded, and
paths into which women were forbidden to follow them. Into these
newly-discovered regions, women were not allowed to penetrate, and men
returned thence with real or affected contempt for their unintellectual
companions, without having attained true wisdom enough to know how much
they would gain by their enlightenment.
The advance of intelligence in men not being met by a corresponding
advance in women, the latter lost their equilibrium in the social
balance. Honour, glory, were no longer attached to the smile of beauty.
The dethroned sovereigns, from being imperious, became abject, and
sought, by paltry arts, to perpetuate the empire which was no longer
conceded as a right. Influence they still possessed, but an influence
debased in its character, and changed in its mode of operation. Instead
of being the objects of devotion of heart,--fantastic, indeed, but
high-minded,--they became the mere playthings of the imagination, or
worse, the mere objects of sensual passion. Respect is the only sure
foundation of influence. Women had ceased to be respected: they
therefore ceased to be beneficially influential. That they retained
another and a worse kind of influence, may be inferred from the spirit,
as imbodied in the literature, of the period. Fiction no longer sought
its heroes among the lofty in mind and pure in morals--its heroines in
spotless virgins and faithful wives. The reckless voluptuary, the
faithless and successful adulteress,--these were the noble beings whose
deeds filled the pages which formed the delight of the wise and the
fair. The ultimate issues of these grievous errors were most strikingly
developed in the respective courts of Louis XIV. and Charles II., where
they reached their climax. The vicious influence of which we have spoken
was then at its height, and the degradation of women had brought on its
inevitable consequence, the degradation of men. With some few
exceptions, (such exceptions, indeed, prove rules!) we trace this evil
influence in the contempt of virtue, public and private; in the base
passions, the narrow and selfish views peculiar to degraded women, and
reflected on the equally degraded men whom such women could have power
to charm.[107]
A change of opinions and of social arrangements has long been operating,
which ought entirely to have abrogated these evils. That they have not
done so is owing to a grand mistake. Women having recovered their
rights, moral and intellectual, have resumed their importance in the eye
of reason: they have long been the ornaments of society, which from them
derives its tone, and it has become too much the main object of their
education to cultivate the accomplishments which may make them such. A
twofold injury has arisen from this mistaken aim; it has blinded women
as to the true nature and end of their existence, and has excited a
spirit of worldly ambition opposed to the devoted unselfishness
necessary for its accomplishment. This is the error of the
unthinking--the reflecting have fallen into another, but not less
serious one. The coarse, but expressive satire of Luther, "That the
human mind is like an intoxicated man on horseback,--if he is set up on
one side, he falls off on the other," was never more fully justified
than on this subject. Because it is perceived that women have a dignity
and value greater than society or themselves have discovered,--because
their talents and virtues place them on a footing of equality with men,
it is maintained that their present sphere of action is too contracted a
one, and that they ought to share in the public functions of the other
sex. Equality, mental and _physical_, is proclaimed! This is matter too
ludicrous to be treated anywhere but in a professed satire; in sober
earnest, it may be asked, upon what grounds so extraordinary a doctrine
is built up! Were women allowed to act out these principles, it would
soon appear that one great range of duty had been left unprovided for in
the schemes of Providence; such an omission would be without parallel.
Two principal points only can here be brought forward, which oppose this
plan at the very outset; they are--
1st. Placing the two sexes in the position of rivals, instead of
coadjutors, entailing the diminution of female influence.
2d. Leaving the important duties of woman only in the hands of that part
of the sex least able to perform them efficiently.
The principle of divided labour seems to be a maxim of the Divine
government, as regards the creature. It is only by a concentration of
powers to one point, that so feeble a being as man can achieve great
results. Why should we wish to set aside this salutary law, and disturb
the beautiful simplicity of arrangement which has given to man the
power, and to woman the influence, to second the plans of Almighty
goodness? They are formed to be co-operators, not rivals, in this great
work; and rivals they would undoubtedly become, if the same career of
public ambition and the same rewards of success were open to both.
Woman, at present, is the regulating power of the great social machine,
retaining, through the very exclusion complained of, the power to judge
of questions by the abstract rules of right and wrong--a power seldom
possessed by those whose spirits are chafed by opposition and heated by
personal contest.
The second resulting evil is a grave one, though, in treating of it,
also, it is difficult to steer clear of ludicrous associations. The
political career being open to women, it is natural to suppose that all
the most gifted of the sex would press forward to confer upon their
country the benefit of their services, and to reap for themselves the
distinction which such services would obtain; the duties hitherto
considered peculiar to the sex would sink to a still lower position in
public estimation than they now hold, and would be abandoned to those
least able conscientiously to fulfil them. The combination of
legislative and maternal duties would indeed be a difficult task, and,
of course, the least ostentatious would be sacrificed.
Yet women have a mission! ay, even a political mission of immense
importance! which they will best fulfil by moving in the sphere assigned
them by Providence: not comet-like, wandering in irregular orbits,
dazzling indeed by their brilliancy, but terrifying by their eccentric
movements and doubtful utility. That the sphere in which they are
required to move is no mean one, and that its apparent contraction
arises only from a defect of intellectual vision, it is the object of
the succeeding chapters to prove.
FOOTNOTES:
[103] We hare come to the close of the Letters. The following pages are
quoted from writers of eminence, and bear directly upon the main subject
of "Female Education." The first quotations are from the anonymous
author of "Woman's Mission." They are of inestimable value. EDITOR.
[104] Aimé Martin.
[105] Aimé Martin.
[106] Ibid.
[107] See the Memoirs of Pepys, Evelyn, De Grammont, &c.
THE SPHERE OF WOMAN'S INFLUENCE.
"The fact of this influence being proved, it is of the utmost importance
that it be impressed upon the mind of women, and that they be
enlightened as to its true nature and extent."
The task is as difficult as it is important, for it demands some
exercise of sober judgment to view it with requisite impartiality; it
requires, too, some courage to encounter the charge of inconsistency
which a faithful discharge of it entails. For it _is_ an apparent
inconsistency to recommend at the same time expansion of views and
contraction of operation; to awaken the sense of power, and to require
that the exercise of it be limited; to apply at once the spur and the
rein. That intellect is to be invigorated only to enlighten
conscience--that conscience is to be enlightened only to act on
details--that accomplishments and graces are to be cultivated only, or
chiefly, to adorn obscurity;--a list of somewhat paradoxical
propositions indeed, and hard to be received; yet, upon their favourable
reception depends, in my opinion, the usefulness of our influence, the
destinies of our race; and it is my intention to direct all my
observations to this point.