CHARACTER OF THE HAPPY WOMAN.
Who is the happy woman? Who is she
That every woman born should wish to be?
It is the generous spirit who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased her childish thought;
Whose high endeavors are an inward light,
That makes the path before her always bright;
Who, with a natural instinct to discern
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes her moral being her prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with pain,
And fear, and sorrow, miserable train!
Turns that necessity to glorious gain;
In face of these doth exercise a power
Which is our human nature’s highest dower;
Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
Of their bad influence, and their good receives;
By objects, which might force the soul to abate
Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;
Is placable,—because occasions rise
So often that demand such sacrifice;
More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure
As tempted more; more able to endure
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
’Tis she whose law is reason; who depends
Upon that law as on the best of friends;
Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
To evil for a guard against worse ill,
And what in quality or act is best
Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
She fixes good on good alone, and owes
To virtue every triumph that she knows;
Who, if she rise to station or command,
Rises by open means, and there will stand
On honorable terms, or else retire—
* * * * *
Who comprehends her trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
For wealth, or honors, or for worldly state;
Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall
Like showers of manna, if they come at all;
Whose power shed round her, in the common strife
Or mild concerns of ordinary life,
A constant influence, a peculiar grace;
But who, if she be called upon to face
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad for human kind,
Is happy as a lover; and, attired
With sudden brightness, like to one inspired;
And through the heat of conflict keeps the law
In calmness made, and sees what she foresaw;
Or if an unexpected call succeed,
Come when it will, is equal to the need!
Mrs. Jameson adds that in all these fifty-six lines there is only one line which cannot be feminized in its significance,—that filled up with asterisks, and which is totally at variance with the ideal of a happy woman. It is the line—
And in himself possess his own desire.
No woman could exist happily or virtuously in such complete independence of all external affections as these words express. “Her desire is to her husband:” this is the sort of subjection prophesied for the daughters of Eve. A woman doomed to exist without this earthly rest for her affections does not “in herself possess her own desire;” she turns towards God; and, if she does not make her life a life of worship, she makes it a life of charity, or she dies a spiritual and a moral death. Is it much better with the man who concentrates his aspirations in himself?