The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1865-01-19
ADDRESS

Young Ladies of the Al1thean Literary
Society: In obedience to your CALL | stand
before you tonight to address you. [ ap-
preciate your consideration and the honor
you do me by summoning me here on such
mission as this, and yet l need scarcely
tell you that 1t is no. without deep soli3
tude L respond to your kind invitation
In casting about me for subject appro-
pirate for the occasion, / have selected
"Ihe HOmanly Uonsdn" And while
would prepare my Canvas, brush and easel
to sketch the Portralture, am not insensi-
bic OF the difficulty of the tax | am rot
blind to the fact that it is delicate thing
Tor speaks to attempt the discussion of
such theme before such an audience,
and | know will be held to strict ac
count for what [ say.
Woman is a sacred name, around which
cluster the fondest memories of home. AT
Its enuncatl0n, we iuvoluntarily wander
back, III imagination, to the ''faIr bounds"
of Paradise, when man peramoulated It's
bowers wrapt in his own solitude. He
felt an "aching void" within for some no.
bier object of eompanionship than any
thing by which he was surrounded Then
1t was said by Him who is the author Of
his being, "lt is not good that man should
be alone" and by the fat of His power
He ushered into existence a congenial
spirit, well calculated to complete the
happiness of him for whose society she
was created. OF this tragic event, it has
been sung:
eden was waste, the garden was a wild,
And man the hermit sighed till woman
smiled"
Here, then, we have perfect ,conaan,
paragon Of excellence, biushing from the
creative energy of the Almighty. But,
amid the wrecks of our degenerate race we
look not for a faultless model Woman
stands not forth in the moral perfection
and loveliness Of Eden, for the crown has
fallen from her head. But We would take
her as We find her, and enrobe her in the
investiture of all those noble qualities
which may De acquired by our
''Sky-born, sky-guideG, sky-returning race"
We would fix our eyes upon humanity
clothed with Divinity, and ir the walks of
the 'Higher Life" would we seek the
model of Womanly Woman.
We could distinguish such an one from
the mere rconean Of accident, who is gov
erned by the circumstances by which she
is surrounded, who is just such woman
as she happens to be, who is the creature
of the whims and prejudices of her 'sliege
lord" who dozes away her life with the
reflection, if she reflects at all, "Iane only
o n0O0,dn; t0td5 can I do 2" The Wom- |
anly Woman, on the contrary, is conscious
Of her individuality. She appreciates her
9 God-given faculties, and is alive to her
destiny. Not willing to be satisfied with
4 passive character, she has an aim and a !
principle; she thinks for herself, acts for |
herself, and, uuder God, is the fabricator
Of her own destiny.
Very much has been said in these mod |
ern times about "woman's rights" and |
'woman's sphere" and the opinions of |
different individuals have been as antipodal I
IS the poles. We are not ambitious to be
classified among the pseudo modern agita-
ors and reformers, who would drag woman
rom her instructive privacy, and crown
ler Joan of Arc. We would no. ask for
Ter place at the ballot box, the hustings,
he bar, or the halls of legislation. 1t may
lot be her province to pour forth eloquence
n senates, or "wade through fields of
laughter to throne" We would not
ave her go where her modesty would be
or her feminine graces destroyed.
We would not have her be an Amazon,
'oasting a masculine character, but we
would have her be sConaan, possessing a
Eoman's soul, and clothed with womanly