Spirit of Chambers's Journal : $b Original tales, essays, and sketches, selected from that workChambers, Robert
General
Spirit of Chambers's Journal : $b Original tales, essays, and sketches, selected from that work
Chambers, Robert
English literature -- Scottish authors
We meet with numerous rules for the conduct of young newly-married
women of all ranks; and if the world is not filled with good wives,
it certainly is not because there is any want of matronly counsel for
their guidance. But though the happiness of the conjugal state depends
at least as much upon the behaviour of the husband as on that of the
wife, there has not, as far as we are aware, been hitherto promulgated
any code of instructions for the use of the former. Our literature
abounds with narrations which exhibit the dutifulness and affection
of women to husbands unworthy of them, who repaid tenderness with
brutality, nor relented till those whose every amiable feeling they
ought to have cherished and rewarded with their love, either sank
broken-hearted, or, grown desperate, became even more abandoned and
profligate than themselves. The man is to blame in nine cases out of
ten where an alliance proves unhappy. In the lower ranks, especially,
it is too often a want of prudence on his part that renders so many
families wretched. _Of the multitudes of those who have wasted
character, health, and means, in intemperance, there is but a small
proportion who might not have preserved respectability by listening
to the admonitions of their wives._ Yet, with these numerous and
undeniable facts before the world, no writer thinks of preventing
such evils by pointing out and enforcing the duties of the party from
whose misconduct they chiefly spring. A small portion of our columns,
therefore, will not be unprofitably bestowed on a subject of so much
importance.
In order to secure the felicity of the married state, a husband must,
in the first place, endeavour to secure the perfect confidence of his
wife. He must banish every thing repulsive from his manner towards her,
and live with her on such easy and friendly terms that she may never
be discouraged from communicating with and consulting him on every
affair, whether it be in the lesser or the greater concerns of life.
If a wife do not find at home sympathy with her afflictions, cares,
and anxieties, she will seek it abroad—she will detail her griefs
to some acquaintance, to whom she will go for advice in matters of
difficulty, and, perhaps, in matters of delicacy, which cannot properly
be appreciated by a stranger, and therefore ought not to be entrusted
to the ear of one. The happiness of the family will thus be made to
depend in a great measure on a person not a member of it, who, whatever
be her prudence, is not intimately interested in the preservation of
its peace, and who is more likely to take a side and encourage feelings
of animosity than to inculcate the duty of mutual forbearance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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