Grass Valley telegraph., 1853-10-20

|
them, perfectly agree with you: we are hear
tily sick of this mawksh, maudln enthusiasm.
reused by such meetings as you condemn, as
if then and there were to be consummated
the ultimate progression and final uplifting
OF man. But tell US, what were we, poor
creatures in your estimation that we are, Gre
ated for? Will you, sir, as many of your sex
have done hitherto, stoop to call us the poe
try OF life,' the flowers Of existence?' Have
we no loftier aim than that? film. indeed /!
II this be ours, O'Connell had US in mind
when ne said, They aim at nothing, and hit
1t? Has God placed woman here only as
token OF some unknown covenant? Was not
the All-Wise in earnest when he said she
should be an help meet for Adam? Is she
only star set to beautify the heavens, like
the unconscious jewels in Aladdin's palace,
and, unlike that star, to have no part in the
solemn and beautiful march of worlds? No :;
Judge her better. She has work to do. OF
the voice Well done can never come to her.
God has given to the fowls the ar. to the
beasts the fields and the forestsS to the fishes
the sea--where, sir, l pray you tell us, is the
sphere of life and of action for woman?"
"Perhaps it were better for us to know
your thoughts on this point, madam re-
! piled the young man, bending his dark eyes
upon the flashing Countenance of the excited
woman. " grant that life must seem some
thing of mystery to her. Released from
school and from guardianship. she looks into
the future with doubt. Trembling she stands
on the threshold of life, and gazes into the
broad temple before her, and sees its inches
OF honor and affairs of duty barred from her
forever by old customs, to- which our fathers
did reverence, and to which, even now stalk
ing through our midst she must not even
say, Go up thou bald head! No wonder
| that her heart dies within her. or beats like
a Gagged startling against the bars of her re-
sistless fate. And yet this is her lot and it
| is only because we look at it with mems ewes
and mems feelings, doubt not, that it ap-
pears so unwelcome and so tame"
"Ah, no, replied the enthusiastic defender
OF her sex; the truth is, she stands at the
door of the wrong temple. There is a shrine
brighter and holer than that, whose offerings
are brought, and whose garlands are twined
by gentle hands, and purer spirits minister
there. That altar is at home. and it's Deity
is God, for God is love-"
"There I agree with you," Interrupted Tr-
wing. 81 have always thought her place was
just there and if all would act as you teach.
Nff VIII Fa9 s9H hheeFe hheP1f Is haTs Less @lt t.
In creation than the principle that everything
has its place and should stay in it, Even the
cOm:ts have fixed orbit, wild as they are
and, now that the universe is settled, it is
not likely God wants any new ones. Men as
prirg to be angels. fell and women has fal-
len low many times when not aspiring half
so high as, that. Her place is at home, and
life properly begins to her, think, when she,
as we term it, settles down in marriage"
ind lr-
lady. "Why, sir, marriage is but the vesti-
bule of her temple of life, and through it she
is to pass far on, and to be changed much
to minister long at its affairs, and to be clad
in white robes, before she ever stands in it's
Holy of Holes of peace and rest. But you
misunderstood me, Ifear. til not altogether
certain that she is to be bound soul and body
to liege lord, as if it were the sum of all
earthly duty to make him happy-as if it
we're her business to give him each day his
daily bread The true woman means the
good neighbor, the efficient member of soce-
ty, the weak mans counsellor, the poor mains
friend. the Christians co-worker as well as
the husbands helpmeet."
1T would be well to be practical in ali
these matters, Mrs Williams" said Irving.
" It is very easy to handy mere words"
=" I am very glad, my friend" was the re-
ply, that you are willing to become practi-
cal. 1t is this theorizing which has made you
what you are in belief. AS phlanthropist,
as mother as a sister, as teacher. woman
has high and glorious sphere to fill. Sis
ters of Charity have done more good than
ever Brothers of Charity could have done.
And 1 would call the ten thousand little
hearts that have learned to throb with earn
est love Under the kind minstratons of a
teachers affection, to witness that man cannot
teach as woman can. and is perfectly unable
to weave with his clumsy fingers the fine
hbres OF young child's thought. Your
practice, | predict, sir, will one day belle your
theory on these points"
Perhaps so, perhaps So" answered the
young physician laughing. to throw off the
serious ar which the conversation had assum-
ed; =" but seriously question the probabili-
ty OF my llfe's ever being so far linked with
one or your sex as that my theory will be
brought to the test. believe most honestly
with the old Vidal, one of Scott's heroes in
romance
'Wonnan's faith and woman IS trust
Write the characters in dust.
Print them on the running stream.
Stamp them on the moons pale beam,
And each evanescent letter
Shall be farer, frmer better.
And more durable, ween,
Than the thing those letters mean >"
We shall see," replied the lady. And thus
ABRUPTLY terminated tkar conversation.
Ladies are generally Srgiving in their dis
position, OF Dr. Irving would hardly have
dared present himself before those of W
again. He seemed, however, to gain mole
yot wisdom, perhaps of modesty, from the
rebuff he had roocivod IN L.. ....L... =. ~ =