Mr. Philosopher, you are a goose. It is obvious that you have drawn your
conclusions from your observations of Frenchmen exclusively, who are
theatrical and affected from the cradle to the grave.
"Woman weeps while man remains silent."--True; she gives vent to her
feelings by weeping, and her full heart is tranquillized by her tears,
which seem not only to relieve and refresh the swollen and burning eyes
of the body, but to render those of the mind more clear and
penetrating. What, for instance, was the language and sentiment of Mary
Queen of Scots, when Rizzio was murdered in her presence? "I will dry up
my tears," said the high-spirited descendant of the Stuarts, "and think
of revenge." Man's remaining silent is not always an evidence of
fortitude or resignation; it may be stupidity and want of feeling, or
gloom and sulkiness; a disposition to find fault with Divine Providence
for visiting him with affliction.
"Woman is in agony when man weeps." Absurd! her tears have relieved her
agony. Like the elastic and pliable willow, she has yielded to the storm
of grief, and her buoyant spirit rises comparatively uninjured from the
conflict.
"Woman is in despair when man is in agony." It is said that the
difference between a fool and a madman is, that the fool draws wrong
conclusions from correct principles, and the madman correct conclusions
from erroneous principles. I leave my readers to judge under which
denomination the author quoted comes. There is but one step in his
climax that approaches the truth, and he has drawn a series of wrong
conclusions from that. The concurrent testimony of a host of writers,
both moralists and historians, goes to establish the fact, that, under
the pressure of remediable misfortunes, women have infinitely greater
acuteness and quickness of perception of means of relief--more
promptness, energy, and courage in carrying them into execution, than
men. "Hope the deceiver" retains possession of the heart of woman long,
long after man has hanged, shot, or drowned himself in despair.
Isabella was certainly almost overcome by the melancholy intelligence,
when first communicated; but weeping and the repose of the morning had
tranquillized her, and the facts that she had ascertained had given her
fresh courage and hopes. Not daring, however, to urge her uncle too far
at that time, as she saw he was out of humor, she was still determined
not by any means to regard one, nor two, nor twenty refusals as
decisive; but, if he could not be "carried by boarding," to blockade him
into compliance. Her uncle's order for her admittance to the prison, she
determined only to use occasionally, and as circumstances pointed out,
for fear of exciting suspicion; but to reserve it as a sort of sheet
anchor for the perfection of a half-formed scheme that was already
agitating her brain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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