The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1842-10-22

It's subllmity, its devotion, its pure abstrac-
ton from all that is debasing and selfish.
And when they do love, their love is not
appreciated. They are doomed to share
the common lot of their sex; and are con-
founded with the mass of mere animals,
who 60 through the forms of life, to full
fl their destiny, as the progenitors OF new
race.
| 1t is essentially different with females.
They are formed by nature to love. 1t is
the fountain and the fms of their lives.
They are more pure, more sincere, more
exalted in their passions; and when they
love, as they do ten thousand times more
Frequently. and more lervently than men
They are unalterably true-elernally
devoted. Life with woman has no charms
but in love or religion. Her destiny is in
prayer, or in devotion to the master of
her heart; and this too is her destiny from
| the hands of God himself, to make her
what she always is, in the hands of virtue
perfect, true. chaste, loving and bewtch-
ing; for, if not beautiful, still is she kind
and loving.
| Shakespeare, who mastered all human
passion, has given some beautiful, as well
as some singular illustrations of female
love. So King Richard says-"She is a
woman. therefore may be woo'd-she is
a woman, therefore may be won.o The
meaning is nstructive-may be always
won by merit. Richard himself was a
| 10 n,t
terer-and as lie says of himself, ''could
wheedle with the devil.n No wonder he
made victim of poor Lady Anne, whose
susceptibility 20 flattery vanquished even
her powerful mind and vigorous judgment
There is no one point of our nature, on
which we are all so weak, as that of flat
terry. Need we, therefore, feel surprised
that women, who have so much reason
to know that we adore them, should fall
before the force Of battery, every shot
from which plerces their hearts as deep
ly as the glances of their eyes penetrate
our own Kings have lost empires by
listening to fatterers. Men have lost for
tunes by the adulation of parasites. Am
bilious asprants for power, have lost for
tune, position, authorily-all that they
were weak enough to try to grasp, by the
syren song Of adulation. Shall we CEN
sure woman for weakness which COM
poses SO large d share of our own nature
and which is the source OF SO many vir-
| tueS2
Who does not remember Bishop White;
so learned. so pure, so venerable, so ex-
emplary! Who does not also remember.
the profound respect he inspired, by new
cr contracting second matrimonial ALI
ance2 All revere his virtues.
We have said, the destiny of woman is
love-or prayer. Not wooed by mau,
not even by alover, her lot is one of prayer.
bcnevolencc, charity, goodwill, good
deeds, love for all her kind What a beau.
tIiul contamination of her original nature.
| Still, though alone with God, as in pray
er, or self communion with her own heart
still, all is love-the love of God, the
love of goodness. or, though active in the
social relations Of benevolence; still it is
| love that carries her to the sick couch 10
smooth the pillow ofpain to assuage the
anguish of that broken heart, to admins
ter relief to the wounded and lacerated
spirit 1t is woman's love that reclams
| the wandering telon from his crimes
subdLes the ragged heart of the stern ruff
fan into tears, peoples the world with
penitence, kindness, sobriety, meekness,
| compassion and charity.
The spirit of chivalry, that made wo-
man a goddess, also made her victim.
The uouhadours, who intoxicated her
mind by adulaton, too often corrupted
her heart by their RIGHTEOUSNESS. They
expanded the field Of amatory adventure
into license for a plurality of idols, and
worshipped at so many shrnes, that they
forgot the true divinity of the sentiment,
| in the wild diffusion of romantic passion.
Chivalry introduced inhdelity to love, a,
the same time that it chanted the song of
| alteration to peerless mistress.
This error of the age, that is so boast
ingly declared to have redeemed man
from darkness, and emancpated woman
| from thraldom, is still the beselting sin of
our own tunes, inc plufallly OF IDOLS.
And to this vice for vice it is of the most
degrading kind, are we to trace so many
OF the outrages perpetrated upon proper
tv, in order to pamper to extravaganza.
Women, we are proud to say. arc dear to
us all, but they become too dear for hon
esty, when affairs are erected to more than
one idol, for our individual worship.
Our remarks have been desultory. Our
aim and drift is to exalt woman, and to
reclaim man. The female has never yet
had Justice allotted to her by the proud
hand of her woud-be master. Too prone
to yield up herself to our mastery, we
are not sufficiently generous to limit the
bounds of our authority. How much
beauty, how much loneliness, how much
| innocence how much devotion is hourly