The Ladies' Vase; Or, Polite Manual for Young LadiesAmerican lady
Religion
The Ladies' Vase; Or, Polite Manual for Young Ladies
American lady
Etiquette for women; Young women -- Conduct of life
"Woman," to use the words of an accomplished living writer, "has been
sent on a higher mission than man; it may be a more arduous, a more
difficult one. It is to manifest and bring to a full development certain
attributes which belong, it is true, to our common nature, but which,
owing to man's peculiar relation to the external world, he could not so
well bring to perfection. Man is sent forth to subdue the earth, to
obtain command over the elements, to form political communities; and to
him, therefore, belong the more hardy and austere virtues; and as they
are made subservient to the relief of our physical wants, and as their
results are more obvious to the senses, it is not surprising that they
have acquired in his eyes an importance which does not in strictness
belong to them. But humility, meekness, gentleness, love, are also
important attributes of our nature, and it would present a sad and
melancholy aspect without them. But let us ask, will man, with his
present characteristic propensities, thrown much more than woman, by his
immediate duties, upon material things; obliged to be conversant with
objects of sense, and exposed to the rude conflicts which this leads to;
will he bring out these virtues in their _full_ beauty and strength? We
think not--even with the assistance which religion promises. These
principles, with many others linked with them, have been placed more
particularly in the keeping of woman; her social condition being
evidently more favorable to their full development."
Let us ever remember that every aggregate number, however great, is
composed of units; and of course, were _each_ American female but
faithful to her God, to her family, and to her country, then would a
mighty, sanctified influence go forth through the wide extent of our
beloved land, diffusing moral health and vigor through every part, and
strengthening it for the endurance of greater trials than have as yet
menaced its existence. A spirit of insubordination and rebellion to
lawful authority pervades our land; and where are these foes effectually
to be checked, if not at their fountain head--in the nursery? Oh! if
every American mother had but labored faithfully in that sacred
inclosure, from the period of our revolutionary struggle, by teaching
her children the great lesson of practical obedience to parental
authority; then would submission to constituted authority, as well as to
the will of God, have been far more prevalent in our land, and the
whole aspect of her affairs would have been widely different.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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