helpfulness. She receives deference and attention from the other sex, and is the object of the most chivalrous feelings of which the heart of man is capable. Some become in consequence mere coquettes. Their vanity is flattered, and they become the toys of society. But under such circumstances woman misses her mission. She ought to receive in order that she may give. She is protected from the rough winds and is armed with finer instincts, so that she may render perpetual and cheerful services to humanity. Her noblest characteristics are developed when she does most to increase the happiness of those around her. The young ladies who spend their mornings in embroidery, their afternoon over the last novel, their evenings in chit-chat, are not noble specimens of womanhood. Idleness and selfishness must always be a curse, and the curse becomes all the more conspicuous in the gentler sex, because the height to which woman can rise is the measure to which she can fall. It is not our province to specify the spheres of woman's activity. For the most part these specify themselves. When a woman becomes a wife and a mother, she finds full and ennobling occupation for all her moral energies. With regard to that large class who do not see their work at home, a little earnest reflection and observation are all that is necessary. There is often much cant and monotonous repetition of phrases about woman's mission. A Sunday school class is not the solution of every feminine difficulty. There are many who have neither taste nor aptitude for the common forms of Christian work, and who imagine that they are, therefore, shut out from helping others. But this is by no means the case. Woman is quick in invention, and there is no reason why she should not strike out fresh paths according to circumstances. Where there is a will there is a way. There could hardly be a nobler sight than a true woman. She sets the tone of a nation; she is the real queen. No people need fear decadence where the purest instincts and influences of womanhood prevail. She rules by that quiet and subtle spiritual force which none can define, and which only the most brutal can defy. Her sphere is the soul of man, and so whatever man touches comes under her spell. Her power is that of the affections, and hence the infinite hopes and strifes of life are illuminated, not to say irradiated, by her queenly supremacy. We may discuss her mission, dispute about the exact nature of her soul, laugh at her conceits, flatter her vanity, affect to be indifferent to her opinion; but every real man has to bow before the silent force of her exalted and intuitional purity. What could woman want more? This is enough for human ambition. She rules the race for good or ill. Only let woman be her true self, and, by the blessing of God, she must be the centre of golden thoughts and inspirations. |