For they are guiding stars, benignly given
To tempt my footsteps to the upward way;
And if I dwell too fondly in thy sight,
I live and love in God's peculiar light."
John Stuart Mill, dedicating his immortal "Essay on Liberty" to the memory of his beloved wife whose earthly frame he had laid to rest beneath the shades of beautiful Avignon, described her as "the inspirer, and in part the author, of all that was best in his writings." The three "guardian angels" whom Comte associated with his secret thoughts, and whom he enshrined in his innermost heart as the sacred judges of his every wish and achievement, were his mother Rosalie Boyer, his friend Clotilde de Vaux, and his servant Sophie Bliot. Of Madame de Vaux he wrote six years after her death: "Adieu, my unchangeable companion! Adieu, my holy Clotilde, who art to me at once wife, sister, and daughter! Adieu, my dear pupil, and my fit colleague. Thy celestial inspiration will dominate the remainder of my life, public as well as private, and preside over my progress towards perfection, purifying my sentiments, ennobling my thoughts, and elevating my conduct. Perhaps, as the principal reward of the grand tasks yet left to me to complete under thy powerful invocation, I shall inseparably write thy name with my own, in the latest remembrances of a grateful humanity." The Taj Mahal which the poet Heber describes as "a dream in marble, designed by Titans and finished by jewellers," is a tribute of love raised over the tomb of Moomtaza Mahul by her husband, the great Mogul, Shah Jehan. She died in giving birth to a daughter, and her last request was that her husband would hallow in his heart her love as the solitary and immortal sanctity of his life. The Taj holds directly under the centre dome, "gleaming like a silver bubble at the edge of the sky, almost as transparent in appearance as the azure itself," the tombs of Shah Jehan and his beloved wife. There the "married lovers" rest, encased in jasper from Punjaub, turquoises from Thibet, agate from Yeman, garnets from Bundelkund, and onyx, amethyst and lapis lazuli; and over them a single stone is inscribed with the ninety-nine names of God. To this day fresh flowers are placed upon the marble sarcophagi, and above them is to be seen the ostrich egg, symbol of the all-encircling Divine Providence. "The most exquisite building on the globe" is a memorial of the love a noble and beautiful woman inspired in the heart of a devoted husband. Who shall measure the power and authority of woman in the worlds of art, literature and social life? And yet, great as is her influence in these, it is even greater in spiritual matters. Woman turns through a natural instinct to the field of religious usefulness, and Renan is not mistaken when he tells us that she has a special tendency to "long after the infinite." Of this Frances Power Cobbe gives us a forcible illustration in a foot-note to her able essay on "The Fitness of Women for the Ministry of Religion." The illustration is taken from Mrs. Kemble's autobiography, and runs as follows: "She describes the late Lady Byron as often expressing envy of her (Mrs. Kemble's) public readings, and her longing to have similar crowds in sympathy with her own impressions. 'I made her laugh,' says Mrs. Kemble, 'by telling her that more than once when looking from my reading-desk over the sea of faces uplifted toward me, a sudden feeling had seized me that I must say something from myself to all these human beings whose attention I felt at that moment entirely at my command, and between whom and myself a sense of sympathy thrilled powerfully and strangely through my heart as I looked steadfastly at them before opening my lips; but that on wondering afterwards what I might, could, would or should have said to them from myself, I never could think of anything but two words—'Be good!'" Miss Cobbe writes: "I believe that nine women out of ten of the better sort would, if they had the choice, oftener speak of duty and religion than of any other theme." Is not Goëthe right?
"The eternal womanly
Draws us upward and onward."
Great is the power of consecrated womanhood in domestic life. It has been shown by able writers that boys who have sisters, and grow up in their society, are more likely to develop into strong and noble men than boys who are deprived of woman's influence. Whatever separates man from woman separates both from God. The great objection urged against social clubs is that they destroy domestic life by isolating the sexes; they furnish an amusement for the husband in which the wife cannot participate. Open the social club to both sexes, and its evil tendency is removed.
Then there is the marriage relation. How many wedded lives come to failure through ignorance. Men and women assume the most sacred responsibilities without preparation, and with no knowledge of themselves nor of each other. We say in the marriage service, "What God hath joined together let not man put asunder;" but when God does not join, is there anything to sunder? Passion dies, novelty disappears, youth fades, and unless love be founded upon an intelligent and mutual esteem, shall it not also crumble? It has been said, "one cannot be at once lover and friend," but you may be sure one will not long remain the former who is not as well the latter. We need to cultivate friendship. Passion will come and go like the shadows of clouds over the smooth surface of a lake, and no love is abiding without friendship. He was right who exclaimed, "They who are joined by love without friendship, walk on gunpowder with lighted torches in their hands!" They who build love upon the foundation of mutual esteem—