Sweet Cicely — or Josiah Allen as a PoliticianHolley, Marietta
Religion
Sweet Cicely — or Josiah Allen as a Politician
Holley, Marietta
Methodist Church (U.S.) -- Fiction; Temperance and religion -- Fiction; Women -- Suffrage -- Fiction
“The tender, lovin' nature that blesses your life, can't help feelin'
pity for those less blessed than herself. She looks down through the
love-guarded lattice of her home,--from which your care would fain bar
out all sights of woe and squalor,--she looks down, and sees the weary
toilers below, the hopeless, the wretched; she sees the steep hills they
have to climb, carry in' their crosses; she sees 'em go down into the
mire, dragged there by the love that should lift 'em up.
“She would not be the woman you love, if she could restrain her hand
from liftin' up the fallen, wipin' tears from weepin' eyes, speakin'
brave words for them who can't speak for themselves.
“The very strength of her affection that would hold you up, if you were
in trouble or disgrace, yearns to help all sorrowin' hearts.
“Down in your heart, you can't help admirin' her for this: we can't help
respectin' the one who advocates the right, the true, even if they are
our conquerors.
“Wimmen hain't angels: now, to be candid, you know they hain't. They
hain't better than men. Men are considerable likely; and it seems
curious to me, that they should act so in this one thing. For men ort
to be more honest and open than wimmen. They hain't had to cajole and
wheedle, and spile their natures, through little trickeries and deceits,
and indirect ways, that wimmen has.
“Why, cramp a tree-limb, and see if it will grow as straight and
vigorous as it would in full freedom and sunshine.
“Men ort to be nobler than wimmen, sincerer, braver. And they ort to be
ashamed of this one trick of theirn; for they know they hain't honest in
it, they hain't generous.
“Give wimmen 2 or 3 generations of moral freedom, and see if men will
laugh at 'em for their little deceits and affectations.
“No: men will be gentler, and wimmen nobler; and they will both come
nearer bein' angels, though most probable they won't be angels: they
won't be any too good then, I hain't a mite afraid of it.”
He kinder sithed; and that sithe sort o' brought me down onto my feet
agin (as it were), and a sense of my duty: and I spoke out agin,--
“Can you, and will you, do Dorlesky's errents?”
[Illustration: THE WEARY TOILERS OF LIFE.]
Wall, he said, “as far as giving Dorlesky her rights was concerned, he
felt that natural human instinct was against the change.” He said, “in
savage races, who knew nothing of civilization, male force and strength
always ruled.”
Says I, “History can't be disputed; and history tells of savage races
where the wimmen always rule, though I don't think they ort to,” says I:
“ability and goodness ort to rule.”
“Nature is against it,” says he.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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