Lord Halifax, in his advice to his daughter, observes, “Nature hath made you such large amends for the seeming injustice of the first distribution, that the right of complaining is come over to our sex. You have it in your power, not only to free yourselves but to subdue your masters, and without violence, throw both their natural and legal authority at your feet. We are made of different tempers, that our defects may be mutually supplied. Your sex wanteth our reason for your conduct, and our strength for your protection; ours wanteth your gentleness to soften, and entertain us. The first part of our life is a good deal subjected to you in the nursery, where you reign, without competition, and by that means, have the advantage of giving the first impressions. Afterwards you have stronger influences, which well managed, have more force on your behalf, than all our privileges of jurisdiction can pretend to have against you. You have more strength in your looks, than we have in our laws; and more power by gentleness, than we have in our arguments.”
Have I circumscribed too much the sphere of woman? Does she aspire to other and broader scenes of occupation? If God hath endowed any one with the spirit of a prophetess, let her prophecy; if of teaching, let her wait on that office. Wheresoever a capacity is bestowed, it is the sign-manual of Heaven. Forbid it, honor, justice, and all that is manly, that I close one avenue opened by the Divinity. But I have spoken of woman in the mass;
| “Common clay, ta'en from the common earth, Moulded by God, and tempered by the tears Of angels, to the perfect form of woman.” |
She who is faithful to her Home, to the sacred calls of Charity, and to the holy impulses of her Social being, fulfils no mean office. She ranks with the glorious sisterhood, who have gone to the rest of the sainted. Let her soul be baptized into the spirit of God, let his glory be the seal of her deeds, and she shall at length join that great company, who “neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God.”
II.
Female Influence.
Christianity a bond of union. Why woman was created. Her influence on Society; on Intellectual Culture. Madame Galvani. Miss Herschel. The Mother’s Influence. Bonaparte’s Remark. Alfred the Great. Influence on Society. Home friendly to piety and virtue. Man’s Temptations. The plea of Eve. Fraternal and Sisterly Influence. The Mother’s sway over her Children. Woman’s Political Influence. The Christian Religion. The Church. Religious Education. Benevolent Enterprizes. The Minister of Legislative Beneficence. Responsibilities correspond to Influence. Madame de Stael’s description of Society in Paris. Woman by Nature a Teacher. Domestic Claims. Patriotism. The women in the French Revolution. A Family in the West. Claims of Religion.
Christianity was designed for the benefit of all classes of mankind. There are none so high that it cannot raise them still higher; and none so low, as to escape its kindly notice and fostering influences. It unites in one fraternal bond, all who bear the impress of God. As a social religion, breaking down every wall of partition, and bringing the whole race into fellowship, its fundamental principle is, “We are members one of another;”—“No man liveth unto himself alone.”