The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1877-10-04
A Tribute to Woman.

There is nothing we delight more in
than to embelish our columns with lit
erary gems, and certainly the following;
Just and beautiful tribute to the bean
ty, gentleness and purity of women, is
a gem of ''purest ray serene" 1t is
like turning aside from the coroding
cares Of every day life to gather "how-
|ers by the wayside." The extract is
from a speech delivered at the celebra-
ton of St. Patrick's Day in st. Louis,
by Rev. r. A. Holland:
Woman is worshipped-a trinity Of
graces; beauty first, next gentleness,
and greatest of all, purity. Beauty
was given her to draw mans love out
ward from self and upward toward
heaven. By it she interprets natures
otherwise unintelligible charms. 1t is
because in her face and form the flow
ing lines and blendid tints express the
sweet mood OF hidden life that we
see in the exquisite shapes and colors
of the landscape, the happy thought OF
m indwelling mind; Thus, by the di
vine ordination of her comeliness, wo-
man stands at the inmost shrine of
the universe as the high priestess of its
benign mysteries. That she may dis
change her sacred duties most worthi-
ly she should bear no blemish from the
crown of the head, whose hairs encir.
Gle it with real glory, to the hollows
of the feet which arch with distinctive
disdain of the earth they feel them
themselves too fair to tread: her dress
should beft her rank by decorations
L Il A., 30 -x,o 1,l
with courtly trains to give due pomp to
her person, and costliest jewels for her
neck, pearls which, though brought up
from the depths of Indian seas by di~
vers who periled their lives, are none
| too dear to hang about its nearer carna-
ton; and diamonds which, though a
tropic new condensed and crystalized,
are none too bright to borrow lustel
| from the eyes that shine above them.
But if beauty have such a celestial
JUNCTION. still more hath gentlenss. II
| transcends all other forces. 1t is as
stronger than the strength of virility
aa silent light is than explosive light
ming. The meekness which suffers with
out complaint, the sense of wrong
which shows itself only in look of for
giveness, or the soft answer which turn
eth away wrath, the yearniDg vigilance
by the sick bed, the kind interest that
anticipates future wants by present pro-
visions, the tender assiduity that never
tires, and the charity that thinketh no
evil, have made woman's love a very re-
ligion in it's power to redeem and emo
BILE character. Though every other
friend fail man, there is one still true
his wife. II his riches take to them
selves wings and fly away, there remains
a treasure that but locks duty more Sc
curely, and gives its key with the great
er trust to his keeping-the heart of his
wife. Should the Jail shut ont all joys
of his life, there will still come, day
by day, one to kiss him through the
grating, and leave its image on the lone
some hours between-the presence of his
wife. Did the moose or gibbet grip his
throat. and no hope of earth draw nigh
to deliver, there would yet hover over
him hope 80 unlike earth as to prove
itself of heaven--the fidelity of his
wife. And such, o! woman, is thy gen.
tleness, so nearly divine that We might
be forgiven as innocent of sin, and only
erring little way, if in its worship we
become idolators.
What now shall say of purity? II is
not because we ourselves are so shaken
and torn in this everyday scuffle with
the actual that we lift womanhood to
lofty place apart and watch its chaste
repose as the type of our own possibili-
ties and the pledge of their attainments?
Drudgery, suspicion of each other, sell
fishness soured by the fear of being
overreached and fermenting with greed
of gain-these things would make life
intolerable were it not for the homes
discoursive of better life in their free>
dom and frankness and mutual forbear-
ance and ministers of affection-which
all flow from feminine purity rs the
rivers which vivify the valleys of the
Alps from the stainless snow on their
SUBMITS.
Aud beauty, gentlenees and purity
seem with one accord to supplicate for
woman sphere distinct from mans
They ask that her hands, formed to
thrill by their touch, shall not be soiled
by labor; that her voice, tuned to pa
thetic meanings, shall not grow hoarse
with the hurrahs of contention, and
that her eyes of perfect candor shall
never learn to wink and squint with
knowinguess Of the worlds truant
practices and social sores.