Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-08-14

Behind the Curtain.

falling curtains, from whence we can, as " lockers
on in Vienna" note the world Of a watering place
as 1t whirls and watzes by rs. There now! take in
your feet; don't be leaving them outside 70: folks
to run against" or your "foreign relations" will
be rapidly assuming warlike character" as the
newspapers say. That's very well-be quiet now,
and tax tent o yourself" for here comes Mrs
Grundy. The gentlemen duly ''arrayed" in fault
less "sine qua mons" and immaculate kids, and
the ladies' all very properly behounced, berbboned
and bemuslined style believed in by them as fulI
dress" Bless their sweet, smiable hearts, how
+ frantic everybody is to seem better pleased than
everybody else! But Fashion says you must be
delighted, and like dutifui Subjects they are doing
their best She is to them somewhat like the exem-
plary parent who one morning carried his Children
out in the green country, then sezing them by the
collars, he cried out, "Now you young rascas, I've
brought you here to enjoy yourselves, and if you
don't set about it pretty quick, you will catch it,
that's all !" Harkl the band strikes up smiles
glitter, Jewels hash,-the kids etc, request the
honor" the nuslins, etc., futter and are Every
happy" the sets form, and away they go! The
sehottische, bah regular hop" sure enough.
| The 'hoops" have it the gentlemen ''now seen,
lost to the gazers eye" go bobbing about like
emaciated exclamation points gallaUting company
Of magnifed carets. You look on with an air of
meek astonishment truly edifying to behold. All!
you speak," you're sick of hotel bellies, but
terfies when will women learn to be helpmeets
for the men," &c, &c. There it is! the old song.
When? you ask; Why, when they are fortunate
enough to find men to help. These " butterflies
would weigh but lightly in the scale of humanity, it
is true but place an equal number of their prese
partners in the opposite scale, and which would
"kick the beam? We are for taking the sexes
pound for pound" as the cook books say Taken
in broad balance, then the average Of woman is
superior to the average of man already, and " hat!
do you still keep like little Oliver asking for
more? If woman be not all that your arbitrary
standard of perfection requires her to be, you are
sure to see it, but let her appear before you as
perfection perfected" and would you comprehend
or appreciate her? Nay, verily-that is, however,
more your misfortune than your fault, probably
few men (f any, have the capacity to appreciate
a true woman. Women usually taught to
"adapt themselves to circumstances" and as men
are, to most of them, a rather important "crcum~
stance, just what they imagine you can appreciate,
that they will be. Not in your generation, or in
the next, will she be what she ought ever to be-
true to God and to herself as well as to yOu,-but
she will be equal to the race Of men with whom she
is mated. When the MOTHERS have educated
new and improved" race OF masculinty, the femin-
ity of our world will need TO take higher grade,
but if to be your equals, be all that is necessary,
they can afford to be stationary for the present.
Men have strange ideas, often extremely vague
ones, of what "perfect woman" would be, could
they but find her;-for il is a notorious fact that
none of you have ever yet found, what all, every
mothers son eff you, are in pursuit Of We sup
pose you seek double quantity of good in the
feminine of your choice, to make up for your own
deficiencies; no! of course We did not expect you
to admit hat-no man ever does, in his heart
it's our private opinion publicly expressed never
theless. 'What is mans idea OF perfecG woman?"
You don't know, and want to elucidate. Well, to
sum it all I'D in general way, as the divines DO
the applications" of their discOurses, it amounts
to this, th0reabout, that she be an angel in pus
rity a cherub in beauty, aseraph in wisdom, dove
10 disposition, and a slave-tO himself! You are
brought up in and eagerly embrace the idea that
woman was made for man." That's az old super
sttOn. We speak reverentslly, COP is, with
you, secondary affair. Ii she pleaseS you, she
must please Him.
In point of fact you ''ignore" the God who made
her, as well as you. You rate and ridcule the
Mussuman who openly declares that "women has
no soul to be saved, land how much better you
practice has precepts than those of Christianity
which YOU profess In the devotion you exact
from her. you give her scsnt time for the salvation
of the soul which your lips, not your practice de"
clare her TO possess; though it may De that you
consider that very devotion to you working Oat
of her own salvation with fear and trembling" and
self could furnish passport to Heaven, doubtless
your opinion would not lack for a foundation.
Where is the man among you that does not say OF
his wife-"she belongs to mel" when the voice Of
the accusing angel should thunder in his ear, "she
belongs 10 GoD?" When will he learn to listen and
to remember this? An eloquent modern writer,
speaking OF man, remarks that at times "dlm fan.
ces pass before his mind, that woman may not
have been born for him, but have come from heav-
o.aa,O Cd all Of md
love; that she can only make for him a home in
which he may lawfully repose In so far as she is
"True to the kindred points of Heaven and home"
In CLEANS, in dim fancies this idea visits the minds
OF common men. Ii is soon obscured by the mists
of sensualty, the dust Of routine, and he thinks it
was only some meteor, or igniS fdtuS that shOne
But as Rosicrucian lamp, it burns on unwearied,
though condemned to the solitude OF tombs, AMI
to Its permanent life, as to every truth each age
has in some form borne witness" Man may one
day learn that woman may not have been born for
him alone" but 10 this age it is seldom indeed that
an Aspasia is fortunate enough to meet with her
Percles.
What is that you sayS "show you one true wo
man mot an Aspasia) in that crowd, and you will
enact Perices yourself" We can do that readily.
Just before you there is a moral heroine, there
may be fifty others in the room; this one we know.
Observe that rather stately looking lady to the left
of the musicians Her robe of light silver grey silk,
with its berthe of costly lace, gemmed here and
there with diamond spark, is the perfection OF
elegant simplicity. You may not perhaps call her
beautiful, aud yet there is charm about her which
operates upon you like the presence OF beauty, it
is like the music Of the wind over the Eolian for
though you may not be able to define the beauty,
as you cannot the breeze, still, from their eff.
fccts YOU are certain that both are present The
carelessly graceful repose OF her manner, the mel
low "Indian summer" light in her slow. moving eye,
and the faint shadow sleeping ever upon her white
brow tell that she has "passed beyond" the beings
that surround her. that she has entered the temple
of the Inner Life and that often her spirit treads
silently the hallowed chamber OF tears. Her voice
comes swelling up 10 rich 'clouded contrato, -
tones which are the very music of the heart. She
has a mind of no common order, heart above
her mind, and a soul above them both. Yes she
is a woman in thousand, docs the man who calls
her wife know this? He loves her as men Usually
do, with selfish love. That is he, the tall daT K
man with black eyes and a beetling brow, on her
right hand she is co1versng with him, aud two
Others the gentleman on her left, Sho Is endeaVor-
ing TO make himself so interesting and shows his
white teeth so frequently, is the Hon. - -,
Senator from B. Ii is fashionable TO admire
the gifted and wealthy Mrs. and he follows
the fashion. Her husband does so too,-in public.
He is pleased with her accomplishments, admires
her talents is proud Of the attention she attracts
not because be rejoees that others appreciate her
fine qualities but because " the honor it reflects
upon himself and he loves her, not for her high
character Independently considered, but for the
good aud cogent reason that she, her character,
her talents, mind, heart, body and soul, bEOHg to
him.
lie, like many others, entertans at times those
'din f&ncits" of her superiority, he even is haunt.
ed once in a while by the idea vaguely Swallowed
forth il is true,) that possibly she may hot have
been born for him slone;n SO be Immediately sets
about establishing his own superiority. and conse-
qnently his right TO possession and dominion, for
ha tarnna nil him ara swpnnxu mona He axnoaaa