Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-11-24
miscellaneous.
For the Anti Slavery Bugle.
WOmen--WOman.

has been rendered too commonplace for US
to hope that anything which we might say
upon it, would be read with patience. Ey-
cry poet has sung, every historian has re-
corded, every moralist has essdyed, every
schoolboy has scrubbed, the peculiar worth
of woman. Her tenderness, and gentlcness,
and timidity, and trustingness-who has not
prated of them? The ivy twining around
the oak, resting upon and decorating it in the
sunshine, but supporting it in storms to which
It's rude strength is unequal, &c. These
praises, as praises, have become fuisome to
delicate women, as TO sensible men, Aware
of this, we feel some embarrassment i'll al
luding to the subject at all. Yet it seems
needful to do SO, in this connexion; and
furthermore, we are much impressed with
the idea, that those TO whom we are indebted
for SO much expression upon the subject, have
rarely had a true conception of the great
truth to which it points, namely, that wo-
mans soul should blend with mans in every
noble sphere of life and action. There is
not more poetry and beauty, than truth and
nature in the Apollo Belvidere, and the We
nus de Medices as the emblems of man and
of woman kind. Not alone are they the
creation of the poets dream, or the sculptor's
skill. That ideal which lives in the heart of
humanity, poesy has only expressed in song.
1t is a reality, and must live while Truth and
Harmony have any hold upon the human
soul. And it were no false philosophy to
take physical beauty, symmetry, and fitness,
as the type of what is perfect in mind
Who would pretend to say that the human
family would presentto the eye more of ma
terial beauty if the sexes were alike in face
and form? Only think of it! Women
wearing beard, coats and pantaloons, and
standing six feet in their boots! Not mean
ing to insinuate that nature made the coats
and pantaloons.) Or, of men with tenor
voices, velvety cheeks, delicate round arms
and slender fingers! Nor would it help the
matter to compromise, and have the sexes
meet, midway between their respective char
acteristics.
The mind of a true and perfect woman
must be in keeping with a perfectly beauti-
full and delicate female, face and form. De
licate in its sensibilities, acute in its percep-
tons, softly, gently harmonious in all its pro-
portions, its leading characteristic would be
moral elevation, refinement, purity, gentle
ness and love. Nor would the highest order
of power and courage be incompatible with
these. 1t must exist with them, and live
through them, giving tone and effect to them.
Such a mind, less prone TO reasoning, no
doubt, than one of masculine order, has less
need of reasoning. Its keen susceptibilties
give it an i~atuition which leads TO ruth and
right, by a shorter and surer road than that
of cold investigation. Her warm sympathy
for suffering, her deeply devotional feelings,
and her strong domestic loves, all tend to
give woman this advantage. This fact is
proyerbial. 1t has been said by one of lit
erary authority, and quoted by every one
who would speak disrespectfully of woman,
that ga man requires some time for reiec-
ton ere he can give his sentiment upon a
subject, but q woman is ever ready on the
instant with her opinions" There is truth
in this sentiment, and however differently the
author may have felt it, we esteem it no less
fl%attering than ~derogatory to woman's pow
ers. What though her sensibility have de-
generated into sickly nervousness; her sus-
ceptibility into fastidious sentimentality her
gentleness into weakness and want of char
acter; her q~6ectionateness into morbid pas
sion for romance; her love of the beautiful
into vain and frivolous fondness for dress,
and her warm interest in her kind into Cos
sip about her neighbours domestic concerns;
does not even this speak volumes in regard
to her true and lofty character? Was there
ever an evil that was not an inverted good ?
And may we not from the characters of the
evils themselves, trace out the nature of the
good which they bespeak?
There needs TO be a closer union between
the labors and pursuits of men and women,
than now, that the characters of both may be
developed and perfected thereby. Either
left to themselves, their respective peculiari-
ties run into excess, and men become coarse
and woman weak. Their mutual dependence
blends with all their relations, and may not
be neglected without loss.
Why has the education of women been so
much neglected-confined as it is mainly to
the requirements of a few trihing things
called accomplishments? Even the sober
and substantial sciences they are taught
mainly to a degree only necessary for dis
play. Does their calling in life require a less
cultivated mind, or a more narrow soul than
the duties of men demand? Nag, veray.
Were her labors even confined to the do
mestic circle, she has all the need of an en-
lightened mind that man can have. 1t would
even seem that if there be a difference, her
powers should be most highly cultivated
Who reuuires the largest soul tho ,nost an