The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-02-03
For the National Era.
MEN AND WOMEN.
No. s.
Wherein the Discourse is upon Love.
BY GAIL HAMILTO.


1 could wish that women were happier This
may appear needless wish to those who look
only on the surface; but below the smoothly.
flowing snrface, there is an undercurrent which
the world knoweth not of There is restless
ness, an unuttered discomfort, a vague longing,
which frets, and wears away the cheerfulness
and happiness of life, particularly in the young
1t is involuntary, unsought, resisted, but all
powerful. All! the capacity for suffering that
there is in girls-the capacity, too, for enjoying
and for acting. 1t is weighed and measured
by those who are armed for the conflict, girded
for the race, but for whom no conflict and no
race ever wait 1t is the slow wasting away
of powers that have nothing to grasp the silent,
subtle corrosion of a heart turned in upon it
self. o, girls, everywhere waiting and watch
ing for day that never comes, have seen
you / know you. have followed you through
the dreary days that dragged their slow length
along. know how the tramp of the monoto
nous years seems to you the dead march of
your young aspirations-how the pulse of your
heart grows fainter and fainter beneath the
swelling fountain of tears.
My heart, end hore, and prayers, and tears,
Are all with you, all with you"
and therefore have right to bid you take heart
and hope for this very unrest is sign. 1t is
the beating of your soul against its prison-bars.
1t is token from above-a voice from the I'M
seen world, bidding you come up higher. 1t
tells you Of level you have not vet reached ;
of energies not yet developed; of a life not yet
rounded off to full perfection. Your soul is
unconsciously sending OUT feelers, and they find
nothing to grasp. The world is six thousand
years old, but ii has not yet learned to use its
resources. 1t knows not what to do with YOU.
and you know not what to do with yourselves.
Your pastors and teachers exhort you to fear
God and keep His commandments and you
try to do it. But that does not fill the void,
does not stop the aching nor soothe the unrest
No, and it never will. People may talk as
much as they choose about the power of re-
ligion, but 1t will not satisfy your hungry heart,
any more than it will your hungry stomach.
God has given to every appetite its appropriate
food, to every emotion its corresponding object.
He has given us means and ends but we blind
for right ones, making His word Of none effect
by our traditions. When we ask Him for
bread, He gives US bread; His children in all
kindness, but ignorantly, give us ofentimes q
stone. Do not reproach or think meanly Of
yourselves for not being happy. If you were
absorbed in dress, visiting, pleasure seeking
you would have no discomfort but would it be
better so? If you were identified with any
great work, anything which could enlist your
whole being, you feel that it would be different
but women seldom have great work to do
Their work is great only in its results, in the
Spirit with which it is done. 1t is a vast sIere
t3ou. -na5 pfavcd t1u. yuncfru yud TO be
| placed, and for our purposes now it is all the
same. If, in truth as in poetry, love could
take up the harp of life, and smite on all the
chords with mi ght, then this chord of self
would, trembling, pass in music out of sight,
and this would be better. This selfabnega.
ton is perhaps Indispensable to womanly com
pleteness. Until this chord has been touched,
there is no diapason. The depths of the soul
are unstirred. There is power lying waste, a
fountain unsealed. No character can be per-
feet which is not symmetrical. You NAV, you
ought to love Christ with IAN o'ermas,eFing
love-" but the two are entirely distinct One
cannot take the place Of the other Every
earthly affection should indeed be baptized
in the heavenly-but only baptized, not trans.
muted. | do not think God ever intended it
| should be.
Have found you o remedy2 No. certainly.
| have only pointed out what would be RENE
dy if found, hut no searching will ever bring it.
1t comes uusought, if it comes at all. What
good have | done you, then? None at all so
far; but here is the point where wish to utter
note of warning. Here is where you are in
Of Oh. 4 Al 4
Faint and furnishing, you will eagerly pluck
the fairlookng apple, and it will turn to dust
and ashes in your mouth. You would better
have died of starvation. Because God has
made you so that love is your life and breath,
| and you pant and gasp without it, you s,a not
to inhale foul malaria; under tine mistaken i'm
preston that ii is mountain air. If it be pure,
the more you breathe of it the better, only be
sure it is pure. Therefore do not love indis-
criminately. An over-ripe apple falls at the
first gust, whether into lily-white banda or on
the unheeding ground, Dc not you so nor be
content With slight Preferences pale, nerve
| less, Pickering, uncertain emotion, that brings
as many misgivings as heart-throbs | have
heard OF girls pausing the threshold Of an
engagement Eat stand to know what to dol'
Never allow yourself to be in such position.
If you don't know what to do, it is the very
strongest of all providential indications that
you are to do nothing. By all means, give
yourself the benefit of the doubt. Friendship
with all entangling alliances with none," is a
| good motto for women as well as for nations.
! Faithfully adhered to, it will keep you free
from those little attachments which insensibly
| but surely fritter away your poTer TO form
lasting and poLie one while it will no more
prevent your soul from going out to meet its
Lord and King, when his trumpet sounds, than
the seven green withes had power to restrain the
Hebrew athlete when his spirit returned TO him,
after its ignoble sleep on a treacherous bo9om.
Do not affect motive IN love. 1t is not a
question Of y;otiFe, but of fact. have no faith
in marrying to do good. The end does not
sanctify the means. If you dc all the good you
can with your own Individuality, do not be-
lieve God will hold you responsible for anything
more. Nor, in my opinion, does the respecta.
bility of the sinner diminish the enormity of the
sin. Missionaries, an excellent class Of men |
have no doubt, bury their poor wives in Hindoo
jungles, and return to America to replace them,
just as madam sends for china tea-cup to re.
place the one broken by careless servant
Men and women (,conen particlsIey1yl combine
with Nature to abhor Vacuum, and the mis-.
sionary's loss ~ often far more easily made up
than madam the Hou>ekeeper's. Mysterious
wheels, wires, and pulleys, are set in motion by
clique of mothers in Israel behind the scenes,
the result Of which is, that soms unonending,
benevolent, and PRACTICAL Miss Brown, finds
herself suddenly precipitated, nolens volens,
generally rolens, into the arms of the good
missionary-he congratuating himself on the
success OF his business transaction she conso-
ling herself that she has gained an excellent
husband, and done God service, thereby killing
/ two birds with one stone and the mothers afore-
said rejoicing in their skillful matrimonial
| diplomacy Now, affirm that it is miserable
business, the whole of it. 1t may be good