Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1859-07-27

Y W GA AAAhS dIC CihAOOlCNy "hCh !
she can thus project her spiritual power up '
on them, and view them in the light of that
God-given knowledge that her mission is to
help and save by the sacrifice of herself.
And she is highest when she does this vol
UNFAIRLY, and yet without self-consciousness.
is truest woman when she lives without
a self-approval Of her love, when she surren-
ders herself, and yet is not conscious of be-
ing noble; when she dies for others, not be-
cause it is her duty, but because she so de-
lights to die; when she is beautiful with this
spiritual beauty, and yet walks her way with
out a wish to muse upon her loneliness.
But though her love is thus unconscious
Of her goodness, yet it is voluntary. Her
will-her whole nature goes with it. 1t is a
free Standardization of her whole powers,
in which she finds the only solution of the
enigma of her existence.
And because she thus loves, therefore is
she enduring. Enduring, because, loving on
in spite of trial, and contempt, and difficulty,
the power Of loving is strengthened; endu-
ring, because her joys do not rest in the alb
sence of pain or sorrow, but in the inward
and deeper realization of that affection by
which she lives. All the agony of the moth
or is as naught before the thought of the life
to come, in which she will lose herself anew,
and Of the Joy, which she will give her nus
band All the long years of i'll usage, which
the wife of a cruel man endures, are borne
and lightened by the dream, that he, per-
chance, will think that she was true and ten
der when she has died for him.
And because her nature is thus filled with
love, therefore the highest woman is depen-
dent. A man may be (the religious feeling
put out of the question: selfsufficing. He
may, independent of the other sex, devote
himself to fame, or the pursuits of the pure
intellect, and be conscious of no necessity for
womanhood. Neander lived and died i'm
mersed in books but no true woman can
live without some human object to spend her
self on. Hence, she becomes dependent on
the objects of her love, be they men or wo-
men. Again unconscious of the strength
arising from her spiritual powers, and con-
scious of her c~0mpdr0tiUe weakness in ply
steal and intellectual faculties, a fact which is
only proved the more by the strenuous deni-
al Of 1t by some women, she must repose her
nature on the outwardly stronger, and find in
man the complement of her being. From
these two necessities, the necessity of some
thing to love, and the necessity of fulfilling
herself, she becomes dependent. We do not
say that men are not dependent on women,
nay, without wamen we could not live
Neander would have died soon, had not his
sister been. But men are not so dependent
on women, as women on men. A man may
find a wife in ambition or in science.
1t is true, in both cases, that the ultimate
person on whom all depend is God but, it il
also true that while women learn the necessi
ty of dependence on Him by the necessary
resting of their nature on men-men learn i
chiefly from the loneliness, which comes up
on them when their boosted s~elfdependenc
is broken up by the terrible stokes of tina
love, which ClU teach us that we are not on
own. But with woman it is the natural dc
pendencc Of their nature on the manly pow
ers, which finally leads them beyond that t
their deep rest on the Divine. The naturs
conducts them to the spiritual, and it is 70
this reason, that women possess more of tn
essence of religion, or entire subservience t
the highest will, than men, because they a
rive at it more naturally through their natur,
And because she is thuspossessed of 'lovin
dependence, therefore is the truest woma
most truly free. For what liberty is lik
hers, who reposing in unquestioning faith o
him she loves, delights to do his will, ,becaus
She is at one yi sssl hin aE affection WI:
"nu coercf0u rHvc no mcanfng, because IoV
is all?
Again, because her nature is necessaril
POooOooOA VI Gulo pOWOI' " 6cll-SdCTlICllIR lON
in so much deeper a manner than that of maj
therefore is she gifted with a subtler insigh
and a more discriminating sympathy. Fl
the capacity of insight is in exact proportio
!, to the capacity of loving, and the power
insight is measured by the strength of 10y
in any character, and by the amount of affe
ton brought to bear upon the -ohjeet.of inve
tigation. To him who loves the univers
the ''open secret" is clear. To him. wi
loves a book, the inner comprehension of
IS granted. To him or her, who loves a pc
son, an intimate knowledge of that soul
given. And the highest woman, who pou
the truest love humanity can know on tho
for whom she spends herself, has a delica
, insight, which penetrates like light into Il
= hidden springs of being and of action, al
+ lays bare the innermost recesses of the spir
= She sees into men and women, as the DC
t sees into the world, because she loves. S
t is lowered with
= The hate ofhate, the scorn of scorn,
i The love of love p
, and for this reason also she possesses q d
: eliminating sympathy. There are two kin
: of sympathy. There is a sympathy, viii
. feels for humanity as a mass, and produC
d philanthropy, and is the parent o~fhigh-sour
ing schemes and Socialistic systems. Oft
.
y times this is worse than useless, for not
c pending itself o. individuals, and too slo
full and dainty to carry out in action its fe
II ings, it forgets its objects, and only suns
IA silken complacency in the warmth of its s.
Z approval. This evil belongs to men and =
sl men alike; but when this large sympat
Oh for the mass is true, and finds it's conn
ment in real work, it produces men who |
IL like Wilberforce, or Francis Xavier; and
such men, whose object is the redemption
is masses, we give the name of benefactors
e, the race. Rarely do women possess t
n kind of sympathy, for they can not genera
mt sufficiently, and even should it be theirs,
Mt practical power to act on it is often WANT
ne and their position shuts them out from OBJ
tunity. Their true province, when such
%, casion does not exist, is 20 arouse action
err appeal to the heart.
be Letter from "Lora."