5.—“... _aspirations crushed_ ...”
“I have found life a series of hopes unfulfilled and wishes
ungratified.”—(Dying words of a talented woman.)
6.—“... _purblind pride_ ...”
“Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence,
And fills up all the mighty void of sense.”
—Pope.
7.—“_Her every wish made subject_ ...”
For a somewhat modern exemplification may be taken the instance of
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in Paris with her husband, in 1852. She
writes of Georges Sand:—“She received us in a room with a bed in it, the
only room she has to occupy, I suppose, during her short stay in
Paris.... Ah, but I didn’t see her smoke; I was unfortunate. I could
only go with Robert three times to her house, and once she was out. He
was really very good and kind to let me go at all after he found the
sort of society rampant around her. He didn’t like it extremely, but,
being the prince of husbands, he was lenient to my desires, and yielded
the point.”—(“Life of Robert Browning,” by Mrs. Sutherland Orr, 1891.)
8.—“... _her God_.”
_Conf._ Milton (“Paradise Lost,” Book IV., 299):—
“He for God only, she for God in him.”
See Note XXXV., 5. Compare also the Code of Manu, v. 154, as quoted by
Letourneau:—“Although the conduct of her husband may be blameworthy, and
he may give himself up to other amours, and be devoid of good qualities,
a virtuous woman ought constantly to revere him as a God.”—(“Evolution
of Marriage,” Chap. XIII.)
_Id._... Here may fittingly be appended some masculine concepts of
feminine duty in other races.