Defect in each, and always thought in thought,
Purpose in purpose, will in will they grow,
The single pure and perfect animal;
The two-celled heart beating with one full stroke
Life.”
As we note the chief peculiarities of female character, it will be seen that woman fills up the vacuum in man, balances his defects, absorbs his cares, and increases his joys.
CORPOREAL ORGANIZATION.
We believe scientific inquirers are not quite unanimous, as to whether woman really is by nature physically inferior to man, and it must be admitted that among the aboriginal inhabitants of at least one-half of the globe, she is treated as if she were physically superior. In France, Belgium, and other continental countries, she may be seen carrying the heaviest loads, guiding the plough, and performing the severest labours. Trained to gymnastic feats, she performs them with quite as much ease and intrepidity as man, while her power of enduring pain and fatigue, when fairly called into operation, is proverbial. Nerve and muscle depend chiefly upon exercise, hence women who engage in hard manual labour surpass in bodily vigour multitudes of recluse and retired scholars of the other sex.
The extraordinary career of a female sailor recently went the round of the newspapers: in consequence of information supplied by Captain Lane, of the Expedient, then lying in the Victoria Dock, Hartlepool, regarding a young woman, Charlotte Petrie, who shipped with him as an ordinary seaman, under the name of William Bruce, and whose sex was not discovered until she arrived at Palermo. The girl had been employed as a labourer at the works for about ten months, and though working alongside of about one hundred and fifty men, she was never suspected to be a woman until one of her fellow-workmen read to her the account of her adventures in the Express, which she admitted to be substantially correct, and that she was Charlotte Petrie. This account was read to her on Saturday, and on Monday morning she disappeared, and has not since been heard of. During the period in which she was employed at the lead works, she resided in Newcastle, and left every morning by the five o’clock boat in time to commence work with the other men. She was generally dressed in loose sailor’s clothes, was known to be an industrious and hard working man, and was generally liked in the works. She mingled freely in a social way with the other labourers in the factory, and was never, in fact, supposed to be a female. While in Newcastle, she was taken ill, and was attended, we understand, by one of our eminent medical men, who also failed to discover that ‘William’s’ Christian name was ‘Charlotte.’ On one occasion, this extraordinary girl was the ‘spokesman’ in an appeal for an increase of wages at the lead factory, in which she was to some extent successful. Her remarkable history has caused considerable excitement at St. Anthony’s, and many of the workmen regret the discovery, as, they say, she was such a pleasant fellow to work with, and it has even been mooted among them to get up a presentation in her behalf. Charlotte Petrie, still in male habiliments, was last seen on board one of the river steamers, and it is supposed she was on her way to Shields, in order to again proceed to sea as a sailor.
But although modes of life, if alike in the sexes, might produce a closer resemblance; taking them generally, the difference between their physical organizations is both palpable and significant. Woman’s stature is inferior, her touch is softer, her tread is lighter, her form is more symmetrical, and her embrace is more affectionate. Thus nature herself has interdicted identification of character and condition. In the language of Scripture, woman is “the weaker vessel,” and her feebler frame and more delicate constitution indicate plainly that she should be regarded with special kindness and attention, and not exposed to the rough and stormy scenes of life.