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irreproachable, be surrounded by a domestic order of things, of a nature to testify, that her wisdom and good conduct have been effectual to produce the happiest results.

The wife who, by her own demeanour, merits well to receive, from the guardians of society, some honourable tokens of their approbation, will not suffer from them a great hardship, though they refuse to accord them to her, on account of her husband's misconduct.

As the attention of all the individuals around her, will be observantly fixed on her, she will readily perceive, that, at heart, they pity and admire her, though an imperative regulation makes them decline lavishing on her any public demonstration of esteem.

Her own delicate feelings will hinder her from wishing that they should; for no unfortunate wife, deserving of tenderness and compassion, would wish to have her virtues signalized to the notice of the public, if her husband's conduct dishonoured him.

As to those married women, to whose election to some honourable, important office, there was no moral impediment, and on whom the choice of the seniors authorized to dispose of it, fell, we may rest assured that the obligation to obtain a husband's permission to accept of it, would not be the slightest bar to their doing so.

Besides that the sentiment of honour would act freely in the breast of every respectable man, engaging him to vivify, by his sanction, a wife's laudable ambition, husbands would really be as much flattered by the honourable trust reposed in a consort, on account of her acknowledged worth, as she would be herself.(a)

NOTE TO THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER.

(See page 264.)

(a) Though husbands do not seem to me at all adapted by nature to standing in an isolated manner, forth to the public, as the only one of the

two yokemates in connexion with it, and to taking, solely, on themselves the office of wisely conducting a wife; though nature seems to me to qualify them ill for being her exclusive guides, yet, where the vigilant eye of the directors of wisely organized social institutions pierces beyond the husband to take cognizance of the wife's conduct, and that they keep in their own hands the means of honorably recompensing her for well doing, husbands appear to me to be admirably constituted for seconding their designs.

They desire, I think, nothing better, as will be yet amply proved by experience, than to put their marital authority in abeyance, and to withdraw themselves aside, that a wife may stand unshadowed forth to the observation of society, and that its influence may fully operate on her heart.

This disposition they appear to me to evince even at present; for the fashion which prevails among them of taking no notice, in society, of a wife and of giving themselves little concern about her mode of disposing of her time, seems to me to proceed from the workings of nature, mysteriously suggesting to them, that they ought not to prevent her coming in direct contact with the opinion of society.

Were our civil institutions so happily modelled as rightly to form that opinion, and cause its influence on married women to produce excellent fruit, the disposition of husbands to allow it a free action on their character, would then be methodically unfolded, and regulated by principle.

They would not, as now, carelessly abandon a wife to the impression made on her mind by the opinions of society; while they respectfully forbore obtruding themselves on the notice of the grave personages who observed her with an intention to set her conduct, should it be highly meritorious, in a light proper to render it honorably conspicuous, they would anxiously profit of their ascendency over her way of thinking, to cause her fear of the opinion of these personages to produce on her character effects tending accurately, to ensure to her their full approbation.

I have had frequent opportunity to observe, that where a married woman is immediately engaged in some important affair with respectable persons, not connected with her by domestic ties, and that it is her interest to please them, her husband's position is favourable to his being the very best counsellor whom she can consult.

Though he does not usually come forward, without urgent necessity, directly to interfere in the matter, he has a lively sense of its being as intimately his concern as his wife's.

He is, also, equally anxious to prevent her being guilty of any wrong proceeding towards the parties with whom she has dealings, as to hinder her experiencing from them any injustice.

The consequence is, that he usually instructs her how to transact business with them, in an equitable, satisfactory manner.

I therefore conclude, that if the immediate relations of married women

with society, had regular, important bearings, their husbands would, with anxious tenderness, though with delicate reserve, exert their powerful influence over them, for the sake of engaging them, by their rational, wise, conduct, to convert those relations into sources yielding them honorable testimonies of universal esteem.

CHAPTER XII.

THE PERSONAL AMBITION OF MOTHERS, IF JUDI. CIOUSLY GRATIFIED, WOULD MAKE THEM FULFIL THE BETTER THEIR MATERNAL DUTIES.

But, supposing it to be true that husbands could be induced to approve of their wives being charged, by society, with honourable and useful avocations, fitted to put them more immediately in relation with the public, than do family duties, it still remains a question, whether it would be advisable to kindle in mothers, who ought to be occupied in training their children, a flame of personal ambition.

A proud, domineering, selfish ambition, is a passion so natural to all mankind, that even maternal feelings have been frequently known to give way before it.

In proportion to the number of women in whom an ambition of this kind was kept alive by circumstances propitious to it, many appear to have evinced that a tenacious attachment to the exercise of power, triumphed, in them, over the love of their children.

Far be it it from me to wish, that such a kind of personal ambition should be excited in the breast of mothers, as would be likely to distract their feelings from their offspring, and lessen their tenderness to them. I am so little inclined to advise such a measure, that I even conceive that we have no right to impose duties on a mother, which she cannot well fulfil, without neglecting her children. More particularly, I think, that we ought not to charge her with such as naturally tend to keep her arrogantly wrapt up in the idea of her own importance. Nature marks, sufficiently, that a mother is her children's property, and we ought scrupulously to leave her

so, under such regulations, however, as shall best tend to make her a wise instructor and soothing consolation to them. Now, I think, that we shall most effectually promote this desirable end, by keeping alive in her breast a gentle, calm sentiment of personal ambition, perfectly harmonizing with her maternal feelings.

- This sentiment should be of a nature constantly to remind her that, in order to be useful to mankind, an ornament to her country, and an honour to her children, she must conduct herself wisely in her mode of educating them, as well as in every other respect. She ought not, therefore, to be entitled to fill any of those posts, reserved for women worthy of receiving marks of public approbation, till she had been several years married; that she was no longer involved in the minute details of nursery cares; and that she had conducted the education of her children sufficiently forward, to make it evident to the wise guardians and counsellors around her, that she was directing it on a plan perfectly in accord with the principles regulating the national institutions; on one that was promising fair to render her children valuable acquisitions to their country.

A mild, but constant movement of personal ambition in her breast, the gratification of which would depend on an exemplary discharge of her maternal, as well as other domestic duties, would have great force to raise her above those petty, private views, by the constant contemplation of which mothers are so much tempted to lose all public spirit.

It would also enable her to address, to her children, a powerful plea to engage them to do honour to her, by their conduct: when they would learn that the opinion formed of them by the public, would greatly serve to decide it, either to bestow on their mother some honourable token of esteem, or to withhold it from her, they would feel doubly stimulated by the desire to act so as to merit universal respect, and prove that they had received an excellent education.(a)

NOTE TO THE TWELFTH CHAPTER.

(See page 267.)

(a) Children, whilever their parents lived, ought to be allowed to hope that they might, by noble actions, become to both, the occasion of their being crowned with public testimonies of honour. I confine myself, however, principally to giving a notion of the kind of national institutions by which the character of women, considered in various capacities, might be improved to its utmost degree of susceptibility; I judge that if sound, clear, principles, were put into action for its improvement, the consideration which the subject deserves, would be bestowed on ascertaining the form, in which these principles might be made to bear, with equal advantage, on the character of men.

CHAPTER XIII.

REMARKS, TOUCHING THE KIND OF HONORARY EMPLOYMENTS, TO WHICH MARRIED WOMEN SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO ASPIRE.

I shall not particularize the civil or political functions to the exercise of which married women might, properly, be rendered eligible: I believe, that, except the internal administration of of the houses of retreat,-they might be, in a great measure, the same as those conferable on single women.

Where, indeed, the functions, to the discharge of which the latter were allowed to aspire, were such as to demand that the persons entrusted with the exercise of them, had long applied assiduously to the sedentary study of some particular department of knowledge, it could not be expected that wives, more especially where they were also mothers, should often be qualified for the right performance of them.

However, offices which required their possessor to be distinguished by extensive views of moral order, a sound judg ment, and a copious knowledge of mankind, rather than by the habit of scientific labours, might often be very properly filled by the mothers of a numerous family.

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