WOMAN-Influence of.

If we wish to know the political and moral condition of a state, we must ask what rank women hold in it. Their influence embraces the whole of life. A wife !-a mother !-two magical words, comprising the sweetest source of man's felicity. Theirs is a reign of beauty, of love, of reason,-always a reign! A man takes counsel with his wife, he obeys his mother; he obeys her long after she has ceased to live; and the ideas which he has received from her become principles stronger even than his passions. Aime Martin.

Burns says with gloomy grandeur, "There is a foggy atmosphere native to my soul in the hour of care which makes the dreary objects seem larger than life." He who suffers thus cannot be relieved by any appliances save those that touch the heart-the homelier the more sanative-and none so sure as a wife's

affectionate ways, quietly moving about the house affairs, which, insignificant as they are in themselves, are felt to be little truthful realities that banish those monstrous phantoms, showing them to be but glooms and shadows. Professor Wilson.

Ye are stars of the night, ye are gems of the

morn,

Ye are dewdrops, whose lustre illumines the thorn,

And rayless that night is, that morning unblest,

Where no beam in your eye lights up peace in the breast;

And the sharp thorn of sorrow sinks deep in the heart,

Till the sweet lip of woman assuages the smart; 'Tis hers o'er the couch of misfortune to bend, In fondness a lover, in firmness a friend; And prosperity's hour, be it ever confess'd, From woman receives both refinement and zest; And adorn'd by the bay, or enwreath'd with the willow,

Her smile is our meed, and her bosom our pillow. Moore.

There is a bud in life's dark wilderness, Whose beauties charm, whose fragrance soothes distress:

There is a beam in lite's o'erclouded sky,
That gilds the starting tear it cannot dry:
That flower, that lonely beam, on Eden's grove
Shed the full sweets and heavenly light of love.
Alas! that aught so fair could lead astray
Man's wavering foot from duty's thornless way.
Yet, lovely woman! yet thy winning smile,
That caused our cares, can every care beguile;
And thy soft hand amid the maze of ill

Can rear one blissful bower of Eden still.
To his low mind thy worth is all unknown,
Who deems thee pleasure's transient toy alone:
But oh! how most deceived, whose creed hath
given

Thine earthly charms a rival band in heaven!
Yet thou hast charms that time may not dispel,
Whose deathless bloom shall glow where angels
dwell:

Thy pitying tear in joy shall melt away,
Like morn's bright dew beneath the solar ray:
Thy warm and generous faith, thy patience
meek,

That plants a smile where pain despoils the cheek;

The balm that virtue mingles here below
To mitigate thy cup of earthly woe-
These shall remain, when sorrow's self is dead,
When sex decays, and passion's stain is fled.
Hamilton Sidney Beresford.

The bleakest rock upon the loneliest heath
Feels in its barrenness some touch of Spring,
Its moss and lichens freshen and revive-
And in the April dew, or beam of May,
And thus the heart most sear'd to human
pleasure,

Melts at the tear, joys at the smile of woman.
Sir Joseph Beaumont.

Women have more strength in their looks than we have in our laws, and more power by their tears than we have by our arguments.

Saville.

Those disasters which break down the spirit of a man, and prostrate him in the dust, seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity and elevation to their character, that at times it approaches to sublimity. Nothing can be more touching than to behold a soft and tender female, who had been all weakness and dependence, and alive to every trivial roughness, while treading the prosperous paths of life, suddenly rising in mental force to be the comforter and supporter of her husband under misfortune, and abiding, with unshrinking firmness, the bitterest blasts of adversity. As the vine which has long twined its graceful foliage about the oak, and been lifted by it in sunshine, will, when the hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs, so is it beautifully ordered by Providence that woman, who is the mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours, should be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calamity; winding herself into

WOMAN.

the rugged recesses of his nature, tenderly supporting the drooping head and binding up the broken heart. I was once congratulating a friend, who had around him a blooming family, knit together in the strongest affection. "I can wish you no better lot," said he, with enthusiasm, "than to have a wife and children : if you are prosperous, there they are to share your prosperity; if otherwise, there they are to comfort you." Washington Irving.

WOMAN-Kindness in.
Kindness in woman, not their beauteous looks,
Shall win my love.
Shakspeare.

O woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,

And variable as the shade

By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou! Sir Walter Scott.

WOMAN-Lot of.

Woman's is comparatively a fixed, a secluded,

and a meditative life. She is more the com

panion of her own thoughts and feelings; and, if they are turned to ministers of sorrow, where shall she look for consolation? Her lot is to be wooed and won; and if unhappy in her love, her heart is like some fortress that has been captured, and sacked, and abandoned, and left desolate. How many bright eyes grow dim-how many soft cheeks grow palehow many lovely forms fade away into the tomb, and none can tell the that blighted their loveliness! As the dove will clasp its wings to its side, and cover and conceal the arrow that is preying on its vitals, so is it the nature of woman to hide from the world the pangs of wounded affection. The love of a delicate female is

cause

always shy and silent. Even when fortunate, she scarcely breathes it to herself; but when otherwise, she buries it in the recesses of her bosom, and there lets it cower and brood

among the ruins of her peace. With her, the desire of her heart has failed-the great charm of her existence is at an end. She neglects all the cheerful exercises which gladden the spirits, quicken the pulse, and send the tide of life in healthful currents through the veins. Her rest is broken, the sweet refreshment of sleep is poisoned by melancholy dreams, "dry sorrow drinks her blood," until her enfeebled frame sinks under the slightest external injury. Look for her, after a little while, and you will find friendship weeping over her untimely grave, and wondering that one, who but lately glowed with all the radiance of health and beauty, should so speedily be

WOMAN.

brought down to "darkness and the worm." You will be told of some casual indisposition that laid her low; but no one knows the mental malady that sapped her strength and made her so easy a prey to the spoiler. Washington Irving.

One only care your gentle breast should moveTh' important business of your life is love. Lord Lyttelton. WOMAN-Loveliness of.

Oh woman! lovely woman! Nature made thee To temper man; we had been brutes without you!

Angels are painted fair to look like you; There's in you all that we believe of heaven,— Amazing brightness, purity, and truth, Eternal joy, and everlasting love.

WOMAN-Mission of.

Otway.

Who that would ask a heart to dulness wed,
The waveless calm, the slumber of the dead?
No: the wild bliss of nature needs alloy,
And fear and sorrow from the fire of joy!
And say, without our hopes, without our fears,
Without the home that plighted love endears,
Without the smile from partial beauty won,
Oh! what were man?-a world without a sun.
Till Hymen brought his love-delighted hour,
There dwelt no joy in Eden's rosy bower!
In vain the viewless seraph, lingering there,
At starry midnight charm'd the listening air:
In vain the wild bird caroll'd on the steep,
To hail the sun, slow wheeling from the deep;
In vain to soothe the solitary shade,
Aerial notes in mingling measure play'd:
The summer wind that shook the spangled
tree,

The whispering wave, the murmur of the

bee;

Still slowly pass'd the melancholy day,
And still the stranger wist not where to stay.
The world was sad! the garden was a wild!
And man, the hermit, sigh'd-till woman
Campbell.

smiled!

Happy the man on whose marriage hearth temper smiles kind from the eyes of woman! "No deity present," saith the heathen proverb, "where absent-prudence"-no joy long a guest where peace is not a dweller. Peace, so like faith, that they may be taken for each other, and poets have clad them with the same veil. But in childhood, in early youth, expect not the changeless green of the cedar. Wouldst thou distinguish fine temper from spiritless dulness, from cold simulationask less what the temper, than what the disposition. Is the nature sweet and trustful, is it free from the morbid self-love which calls itself "sensitive feeling," and frets at imaginary offences-is the tendency to be grateful for kindness-yet take kindness meekly, and accept as a benefit what the vain call a due? From dispositions thus blessed, sweet temper will come forth to gladden thee, spontaneous and free. Quick with some, with some slow, word and look emerge out of the heart.

Be

thy first question, "Is the heart itself generous and tender?" If it be so self-control comes with deepening affection. Call not that a good heart which, hastening to sting if a fibre be ruffled, cries. "I am no hypocrite," Accept that excuse, and revenge becomes virtue. But where the heart, if it give the offence, pines till it win back the pardon; if offended itself, bounds forth to forgive, ever longing to soothe, ever grieved if it wound;

then be sure that its nobleness will need but few trials of pain in each outbreak, to refine and chastise its expression. Fear not then; be but noble thyself, thou art safe! Bulwer Lytton.

WOMAN-Voice of.

There is one part of woman's education often forgotten or neglected-the culture and formation of a gentle voice. It is a great gift of nature, to be aided by culture-an instrument of powerful influence for good. I speak not of singing hymns now, and of culture for harmony and musical purposes, though these tend to God's praise, or to give innocent amusement, but this gentle voice will be able to guide and persuade to good the manly heart of a faithful husband, will mitigate sorrow, lessen trial, and speak of hope and joy to her dearest friends and connexions, in accents at once powerful and pleasing. us then be careful in our schools to cultivate this most valuable acquirement. How different, in all respects, for a family, for friends and neighbours, are the kind, gentle, persuasive accents I have described, from sounds we sometimes (alas! too often) hear in the close abodes of poverty and trial-high, harsh, female treble tones of bitter import, scolding and reproaching, and driving away from the hearth and home (perhaps to sorrow and to sin) the husband and the children. Slaney. WOMEN-Activities of.

Let

When the men of Israel bowed in helplessness before Pharoah, two women spurned his edicts and refused his behests. A father made no effort to save the infant Moses, but a mother's care hid him while concealment was possible, and a sister watched over his preservation when exposed on the river's brink. To woman was intrusted the charge of providing for the perils and the wants of the wilderness; and in the hour of triumph. woman's voice was loudest in the acclaim of joy that ascended to heaven from an emancipated Bellew.

nation.

WOMEN-Three Characteristics of. 'Tis beauty, that doth oft make women proud;

WOMEN-Excellency of.

How little do lovely women know what awful beings they are in the eyes of inexperienced youth! Young men brought up in the

fashionable circles of our cities will smile at

this. Accustomed to mingle incessantly in female society, and to have the romance of the heart deadened by a thousand frivolous flirtations, women are nothing but women in their eyes; but to a susceptible youth like myself, brought up in the country, they are perfect divinities. Washington Irving.

WOMEN-Things Hated by.

Falsehood and cowardice Are things that women highly hold in hate. Shakspeare.

WOMEN-Hint to.

I have found that the men who are really the most fond of the ladies-who cherish for them the highest respect-are seldom the most popular with the sex. Men of great assurance, whose tongues are lightly hung-who make words supply the places of ideas, and place compliment in the room of sentiment-are their favourites. A due respect for women leads to respectful action towards them, and respect is mistaken by them for neglect or want of love. Addison.

WOMEN-Judgment of.

In a conversation I once held with an eminent minister of our church, he made this fine observation: "We will say nothing of the manner in which that sex usually conduct an argument; but the intuitive judgments of women are often more to be relied upon than the conclusions which we reach by an elaborate process of reasoning." No man that has an intelligent wife, or who is accustomed to the society of educated women, will dispute this. Times without number you must have known them decide questions on the instant, and with unerring accuracy, which you had been poring over for hours, perhaps, with no other result than to find yourself getting deeper and

WOMEN.

deeper into the tangled maze of doubts and difficulties. It were hardly generous to allege that they achieve these feats less by reasoning than by a sort of sagacity which approximates to the sure instinct of the animal races; and yet there seems to be some ground for the remark of a witty French writer, that, when a man has toiled, step by step, up a flight of stairs, he will be sure to find a woman at the top; but she will not be able to tell how she got there. How she got there, however, is of If the conclusions a woman little moment. has reached are sound, that is all that concerns And that they are very apt to be sound on the practical matters of domestic and secular life, nothing but prejudice or self-conceit can prevent us from acknowledging. The inference, therefore, is unavoidable, that the man who thinks it beneath his dignity to take counsel with an intelligent wife, stands in his own light, and betrays that lack of judgment which he tacitly attributes to her. Boardman. WOMEN-Kindliness of.

us.

I have observed among all nations that the women ornament themselves more than the men; that wherever found, they are same kind, civil, obliging, humane, tender beings; that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest. They do not hesitate, like man, to perform an hospitable or generous action; not haughty or arrogant, nor super cilious, but full of courtesy and fond of society; industrious, economical, ingenuous, more liable in general to err than man, but in general, also, more virtuous, and performing more good actions, than he. I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship to a woman, whether civilized or savage, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man it has often been otherwise. In wandering over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark; through honest Sweden, frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide-spread regions of the wandering Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, woman has ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so; and, to add to this virtue, so worthy of the appellation of benevolence, these actions have been performed in so free and so kind a manner, that if I was dry I drank the sweet draught, and if hungry, ate the coarse morsel, with a double relish.

WOMEN-Piety of.

Layard

I have ofttimes noted, when women receive the doctrine of the Gospel, they are far more fervent in faith, they hold to it more stiff and fast than men do; as we see in the loving

Magdalen, who was more hearty and bold than Peter. Luther.

WOMEN-Power of.

Whatever may be the customs and laws of a country, the women of it decide the morals. Free or subjugated, they reign, because they hold possession of our passions. But their influence is more or less salutary, according to the degree of esteem which is granted them. Whether they are our idols or companions, courtesans or beasts of burthen, the reaction is complete, and they make us such as they

are themselves. It seems as if Nature connected our intelligence with their dignity, as we connect our morality with their virtue. This, therefore, is a law of eternal justice man cannot degrade woman without himself falling into degradation; he cannot raise them without himself becoming better. Let us cast our eyes over the globe, and observe those two great divisions of the human race, the East and the West. One half of the ancient world remains without progress or thought, and under the load of a barbarous cultivation;

women there are slaves. The other half advances toward freedom and light: the women are loved and honoured.

WOMEN-Unmarried.

Martin.

I speculate much on the existence of unmarried and never-to-be-married women nowadays; and I have already got to the point of considering that there is no more respectable character on this earth than an unmarried woman, who makes her own way through life quietly, perseveringly, without support of husband or brother; and who retains in her possession a well-regulated mind, a disposition to enjoy simple pleasures, and fortitude to support inevitable pains, sympathy with the sufferings of others, and willingness to relieve want as far as her means extend.

WOMEN-Usefulness of.

Charlotte Bronté.

WORDS-Caution respecting.

What you keep by you, you may change and mend; but words once spoke can never

be recall'd,

WORDS-Definition of.

Roscommon.

Words are the counters of wise men, and Hobbes.

WONDER-Character of.

Johnson.

Wonder is a pause of reason, a sudden cessation of the mental progress, which lasts only while the understanding is fixed upon some single idea, and is at an end when it

Words are the wings of actions. WORDS-Fickleness of.

Lavater,

Words, those fickle daughters of the earth, are the creation of a being that is finite, and