The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-01-27
For the National Era.
MEN AND WOMEN.
Wherein Woman Stands Arraigned.
BY GAIL HAMILTON,


{Ou are greatly to be blamed for this style of
setting and tone of thinking. You care too lit
&c TO be, and too much to SEEM You must com
fland, not ask, respect. You must not complain
Ct contempt SO long as you are contemplate
There is no power to keep you permanently
below or above your proper level. In this great
falling sea of society, you will sink or swim ac-
'-'rding to your specific gravity. If you are
$upid and heavy, plump you will 90 to the bot
t9n. where you belong. If you are light and
empty-no cargo no ballast, no rudder-vou
will be tossed about by every eddy, aimless and
useless, except as the toy of an hour. You must
be well-proportioned, well provisioned, with adj
e1uate machinery in good working order, if you
would ride the waves proudly and make your
haven successfully. Remember this. Whatever
i done 1or you must be done by you. All real
Improvement must work from within outward.
Woman's incapacity is the only real barrier to
roIaan's progress. Whenever women show them.
S.lyes able, men will show themselves willing.
.his is what you strength-calbre. You
90 aot set half enough value on muscular power.
Aesthetic young lady writer's and sentimental
enny-a-ners have imbibed and propagated the
Lice that feebleness and iragility are womany
end fascinating. The result is a legion of Ian
gu1 headaches, an interesting inability to walk
lrll., a dozen consecutive miles, delicate hor
r1r>of open windows, northwest wind. and
wholesome rain-storms There is no computing
i TIE wake Of such line as
"Therr j. "A sweetness in woman's decay
a heightened sweetness long drawn out by some
compliant and initiative females | do not. of
course refer to real iuyalids, who have inherited
feeble constitutions, and, by unavoidable and
oden unsclfsh and unceaSing wear and tear.
hsye exhausted their small capital and to whom
II is become one long scene of WEAKNESS and
pm. Heaven help them bear the burden !;
ard they do bear it nobly, often accomplishing
what ought to make their ruddy and robust sis
tiers blush for shame at their own ineilicicncy.
| mean women who have every opportunity 10
be healthy, but who are not healthy, who are
sick when it is their duty to be well. 4 woman
of twenty, in comfortable circumstances, ought
to be as much ashamed of being dyspeptic as of
being drunk. Fathers and mothers, burdened
with cares and anXieties, may neglect physOlog
ical laws without impugning their moral char
acter; but for a girl, care-lree, TO confess such
an impeachment, is presumptive evidence Of
guttony, laZIness, or ignorance, and generally
all three. This is not elegant language, | know;
butwhen we have learned to call things bv their
right names, we shall have taken one step to-
wards the millennium; and it is an indisputable
fact, that great ma ority of ailments arise from
md dor
mefable hosts of nervous diseases with which our
women are afflicted are always aggravated and
often caused by these indulgences. Women do
not know this, and, If they did, it would be of
little use, so long as they consider Illness one
Of the charms of beauty Let the idea once get
frrn hold, that illness is stupid and vulgar and
generation or two-nay, even year or two
would show marked change. If a woman is i'll,
let her take it for granted that is her first bust
ness to get WELL and let her forthwith set about
it. a good stout will, resolute purpose, would
work wonders. Sew persons like sick people,"
says Charles Lamb; Gas for me, | candidly
confess, hate them. Whatever poetasters
sing, you may depend upon it, good digestion
is an excellent thing in woman"
Health once re-established, let women next
diyest themselves of the idea that moral weak
ness is an essential attribute of a wel-developed
character. 1t is pandering to masculine pre-
iudices with which have no patience. If there
is anything more diSagreeable than your strong
minded woman, it is she who denounces them
to ingratiate herself with men, who obtrudes
herself as not being of them. Whenever
prominent women are made the subject of con
versation 10y men, if there is a possible peg in
their character or course on which commend
alton can be hung, be sure you hang it. Scold
them or spurn them privately as much as you
4 It,. al.
much as you can. Scorn the meanness of
striving to attract mems admiration BY affecting
little weaknesses ~ dislike to travel alone"
said a Young lady, with tho thweet an exthpres-
sion. 81 always feel as dependent as a child"
Dependent on what? Whom? How ? 1t is ex-
ceedngly disagreeable to be obliged to sit on
the same seat with person who evidently does
not believe man is an amphibious animal. 1t
is not pleasant to elbow your way through a
mob of vociierous hackmen. You feel safer and
far more comfortable to be under the care of
good traveller, but that the necessity of indie
pendent and intelligent action should produce
a feeling of dependence indicates an unsound-
ness somewhere which should be looked after
at once. l know no risks in ordinary travelling
so great, that one should prefer an Indifferent
companion to ones own society. / do not be-
lieve men apotheosise this amiable incapacity
to the extent supposed; but what if they do?
God does not. He gave every muscle and
nerve, every power and faculty, to be used. He
never intended that we should effervesce in a
sigh or collapse to a shadow. If men think so,
it only shows that they need, as the Brahmin
said, "to have little more intellect put into
them
The old oak quivers through all its tremulous
leaves at the passing of the softest summer
bret re but deep hidden in the heart of its
greatness flows its sap of life and away down
under the ground spread out its roots of