But as society gradually shakes off the remnants of barbarism and the
intellectual and moral interests of man rise, in estimation, above the
merely sensual, a truer estimate is formed of woman's duties, and of
the measure of intellect requisite for the proper discharge of them.
Let any man of sense and discernment become the member of a large
household, in which a well-educated and pious woman is endeavoring
systematically to discharge her multiform duties; let him fully
comprehend all her cares, difficulties, and perplexities; and it is
probable he would coincide in the opinion that no statesman, at the
head of a nation's affairs, had more frequent calls for wisdom,
firmness, tact, discrimination, prudence, and versatility of talent,
than such a woman.
She has a husband, to whose peculiar tastes and habits she must
accommodate herself; she has children whose health she must guard,
whose physical constitutions she must study and develop, whose temper
and habits she must regulate, whose principles she must form, whose
pursuits she must guide. She has constantly changing domestics, with
all varieties of temper and habits, whom she must govern, instruct,
and direct; she is required to regulate the finances of the domestic
state, and constantly to adapt expenditures to the means and to the
relative claims of each department.
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