Year: 1873

Nature, which has given weapons of
assault or means of defence to almost
all living creatures, has made man auda-
cious, and has endowed woman with
dignity. And dignity has the best of it.
In fact, womanly dignity may be ac-
cepted as one among many explanations
of that legendary power which turned
the bravest man to stone, and made the
might of the strongest like water In
their bones. What can any one do
against it? As well try to penetrate
the armadillo's coat Of mail by a needle,
or make hole III a pachyderm by a
popgun, as fire woman to passion or
melt her to pity when she has once en-
trenched herself in the stronghold of her
dignity. No argument can shake her, no
reasoning convince her; despair dies
away in querulousness, aud the plead
ings of love itself fall dull and blunted
from her stately self-possession like so
many toy shafts hurled against a pol
ished and impenetrable surface. Indeed,
how can you rage in anger, or abase
yourself in entreaty, to a creature who
is icily polite, loftily unmoved, not to
be goaded into the smallest demonstra-
ton which would put her in the wrong
and give you a vantage-point against
her, and whose calm eyes look at you
with kind of superior scorn which,
while it maddens you, offers no point Of
attack What can you do? Simply
nothing. The means of defence which
nature has given are unassailable, and
a difniged woman is mistress of the sit
uatiOn blythe very power of negation,
if by none other. But there are various
kinds of dignity, and if some are more
exasperating than others, some are very
lovely, and among the greatest charms
of womanhood. There is in particular
that soft dignity which belongs to wo-
men who are affectionate by nature and
timid by temperament, but who have
reserve of self-respect that defends
them against themselves as well as
against others. These have quiet dig
nifty, tempered by much sweetness of
speech and manner, that is the loveliest
kind of all, the most subtle as well as the
most beautiful. They are like the lady
in Comus, and seem to cast the spell of
respect on all with whom they are as
sociated. No man, save of the cOarsest
fibre, and such as only physical strength
can control, could be rude to them in
word or brutal in deed for there is
something about them, very indefinite
but very strong withal, which seems to
give them special protection from inso-
lence and a loving woman of soft
manners, whose mind is pure and who
respects herself, is armed with a power
which none but the vilest can despise.
This is the woman who gets a precise
obedience from her servants without ex-
acting it, and whose children do not
dream of disputing her wishes who,
though so gentle and affable, stops short
of that kind of familiarity which breeds
contempt. and with whom no one takes
a liberty. For this, one can scarcely
give a reason. She would not ramp or
rave if she was displeased, she would
not scold, she could not strike; but
there is a certain quality in her which
we may not be able to formularize, yet
which would make us ashamed to pass
beyond the boundaries of the strictest
respect, and which restraints others less
consciously critical than ourselves as
certainly as fear. 1t is the respect we
pay to those who respect themselves;
the consideration and honor which all
real purity of nature demands and OBJ
tains. This is womanly dignity in its
Ioveliest aspect, and the kind we all de-
sire to see in women, whom it would not
harden, nor render less than loving.