The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-02-24

affirming that, as q class, they are not largely
addicted to sending huge rolls of spontaneous
banks bills to anonymous correspondents. When
you hear of mems receiving twenty, forty, or
hundred dollars page and twenty and forty
thousand for a volume Of history, or romance,
or science, don't think of the forty dollars SIM
ply, but Of the forty years of daily and nightly
toll, research, study thought, contrivance, ex-
pertinent, disappointment, Encouragement, vex.
alton, and heartache, that have preceded them.
The crowd they only see the crown,
Ihey oGly hear The hymn
They mark no, that the cheek Is pale,
And that the eye j. dim"
Do YOU prize the crown so highly, that you
will bear the cross? To be purified by the
poets fire, will you endure the anguish of the
burning? Do you worship the goddess with SO
true faith, that you viii offer up yourself al
her shrine?
There are obstacles without as well as within.
certain prejudice against female writer's " still
lives it is fine, subtle, impalpable, but real.
1t Is like the great ocean OF air that wraps us
round. little of it cannot be seen; it is only
i'll mass that it becomes visible. 1t is like a
iar-Of gar look straight at it, and it is not
there look aSkance, and it wrinkles and winkS
at you again. 1t is like the Indian in warfare
it never meets you face to face, and takes fair
aim, but darling behind shelter, sends a shot
obhquely. 1t is also like the Devil; resist it.
and it will flee from you. 1t IS indeed vanish
ing every day; and as woman gravitates to her
proper place, and the elements cease to be agi-
tated, it will entirely disappear. Like other
fashions founded on within, caprice, or injustice,
and not on the eternal fitness of things, it will
go from master to man, from man to scullion,
from scullion to the dogs. 1t has already be-
gun Its downward progress. Largehearted and
large-braincd men, the mOnarchs of thought.
have flung it clean off. The ranks below them.
men of small capacities but unbounded am
bition, who see i'll women their own rivals
who fear and justly, too, that fair field and
no favor would Dust them from seats they have
questionable claim to FIJI and infinite difficulty
TO hold-have caught the iIimsy, floating thing,
and see but darkly through its tremulons SHIN
mer; and, with limbs tangled in its fair, strong
invisible meshes, walk stumbling and uncer
tain. So long as you will lend Yourself to the
amusement Of these nen-be witty playful
piquant, afiectiOnate, and saucy; dance and
sparkle along their ascending pathway; circle.
as brilliant n satellite as YOU please round
themselves, the central, acknowledged sun
they will shine down on you the most being
nant and complacent condescenson. But
once undertake to set rp for yourself; get the
troublesome idea into your head, that that head
was given you for something more than series
of fireworks; tell them seriously that YOU have
been thinking whether all play may not MAKE.
! Gill mere toy, just as il does Jack, and whether
| there may not be something in the world for
! YOU to do; whether the purling, singing, happy
brook, that now only freshens the yiulets on It's
banks, may not, 10y widening and deepening
the channel, be made suhservicnt To nobleY
and not less purer uses whether the same VI.
vacity, compactness, and power, that enliven
the social circle, and fling charm around Il
/ few favored lives may not CLEAN on a broader
/ cDb with Il inc .l I,,,4y a.
/ harsh outline Of some lmwelcomc truth into
/ grace and loneliness, light up some sonlbre
picture VI. rol9.n ttntz-,.aG-1, liLleu
used-into Damascene cleaning, suppleness,
and sharpness, and restore it once more to the
arnory of God--and 10! our respected friend
who, whilom, found no words so sweet as ftly
could express his love, complacence, interest
IN your veal, admiration of your character,
and pride in your reputation, cools suddenly
down to zero--leans leisurey back in his com
Portable Study-chair, strokes caressingly his
black mustache, and with eyes turned contem-
platively celing-ward and infinite and plying
tOrbearancc of voice and manner: ayes
(rlsng infection, indicative of mental and sub
jective interrogation,l "Ye-s,' failing inhec-
ton; Interrogation not satisfactorily answered.
" \ GU may be able to effect something. There
are very respectable authors among women"
(Magnanmous concessionD "There is no
doubt that the thing is overdOne. Still
and here, or a minute after, at furthest he will
cut intellectual pirouette and with most
frank, arch, and engaging smile, inform YOU
that, after all, he would "rather see ring on
your third finger than an ink-spot on your first"
Stupid
You will often see the outcropping of this
feeling in the criticisms of women's books not
that Just and generous criticism which discrimi-
mates between the evil and the good, condemns
the one without rancor, and applauds the other
without serviity, but that halffattering half
contemptuous, and wholly contemplate notice,
whose compassionate blame and condesccnding
praise are alike Insulting. Such was the revenge
of our sleek, respectable selfadmiring, male
writer's, when Aurora Leigh-God bless her
dashed in upon their iancied security, and shiv-
cred her most kniGhtly yet right womanly lance
against their time-hOnOred commonplaces
| What shaking of the dry bones there must
have been, indeed, under the hools of her high
melted steed ? But as soon as their spirits re.
turned to them again, they fell a-babbling Of
Socialism, and FOurierism, and Chartism, and
call the others that end in ism and there
was poetry in the book, 6Ut there was deal OF
obscurity and there was felicity of expression.
bit there was occasional awkwardness; and
there were a great many things, bit there were
also a great many others; and, on the whole,
Aurora Leigh must be pronounced a failure.
Self-blinded If Aurora Leigh be womans
/ failure, what would O wonans success be?
Sometimes this prejudice takes the form of
disinterested counsel, paterna and allectionate
advice but through the lions skin, the long ears
reveal Individually the true nature of the ami
NAL. " Aspiring sisters" says the domestic
brute before alluded 10, why is the tone of your
lucubrations alwaysso mourntul? If you must
write write cheerluully, Don't let every song
be dirge Wewantto be amused when we read,
There is the again } consume in private your
private griefs." Not doubt of it. Beyond
cavil it would be vastly agreeable to our private
Ncros-Heaven be praised that they are few
| know that there are some-who harry the life
out Of wife and child, who are tyrants without
fear of assassination, because their victims are
too good--or of public opinion, because the
thing is done in q corner--or OF the law, because
it takes no cogniZance Of MISUNDERSTANDING
less it would be vastly agreeable to them, that
women should endure uncomplainlngly. No
voice louder than theirs in praise of her sweet
selfabnegation and silent fortitude, Or in depre-
cation of publicly displayed sorrow, when, IN
song or story, the minor key OF sadness, the out
burst Of long-pent-pp' anguish, or the unmis-
taxable wall of a broken heart, sends home 10
their own breasts the prophets stern charge,
your private griefsl No. Take them in a
highest mountain-top ring the church bells,
hoist the flags, beat the drums, and let the
whole world see the bonfire and if the fame
scorches our sensitive friends let them Just stand
back. Why should they autter about it, if they
don't want their wings singed
Do all or any of these things move you 2 Do
90 nb IL