Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Wife of Henry Ware, Jr.Hall, Edward B. (Edward Brooks)
Religion
Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Wife of Henry Ware, Jr.
Hall, Edward B. (Edward Brooks)
Unitarians -- United States -- Biography; Ware, Mary L. (Mary Lovell), 1798-1849
"_June 26, 1845._ ... No woman can be a true woman, whatever may
be her intellectual acquirements or capacity, without that
womanly knowledge which will fit her for domestic life, and
enable her to fill 'home,' that appointed sphere of most
women's duties at some time or other, with all the comforts
which alone can make it happy. I do not mean merely the
knowledge of the daily routine of outside domestic employments;
but the cultivation of the domestic affections, the habits of
concession and self-sacrifice, of delicate attention to the
little things which go so far to make up the sum of domestic
happiness, and the mechanical facility with respect to a
thousand minor matters,--all of which nothing but practice in
the atmosphere which calls them into exercise can possibly
teach. I will not deny that I think a great deal, too, of
education in 'common domestic employments,' as a means of
happiness and usefulness. I hold that nothing can compensate
for a wilful neglect of what may be made the means of so much
comfort to others, as order, cleanliness, and a facility in
administering to the human wants of our friends, which is
peculiarly woman's province. Now, for this part of education,
home ought to be the best place. Of course it is impossible,
while attending school constantly, to find time for these other
matters, and all theoretical learning upon such subjects can be
of little use without practice."
Mrs. Ware had found another, new home,--a pleasant cottage built for her
use by a friend after she went to Milton, and entered by her and her
children toward the end of the year,--her last removal. And highly
favored did she feel, both in the society around her and the local
situation. No heart could be more alive to the beauties of that glorious
"Milton Hill" than was hers. Its rich landscape, its gorgeous sunsets,
and ever-varying hues, she enjoyed intensely, for their natural beauty,
and not less, if not more, for their moral influence. The thought of
her enthusiasm comes over us even now with subduing power, as we stand
again at her side on those beautiful heights, to which she longed to
lead _all_ her friends, and see the emotion, if we hear not the
utterance, of her glowing, admiring spirit. We catch again the earnest
words with which she urged a visit there, even in the freshness of her
widowed grief. "O this glorious view! I do hope the weather will be
good, that you may see it in all its glory. I had no conception of the
moral influence of the sublime and beautiful before. I really think one
must be _very_ wicked to be troubled about little things, within sight
of such a display of the Divine love; even children feel it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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