The True Woman: A Series of Discourses, to Which Is Added Woman vs. BallotFulton, Justin D. (Justin Dewey)
Religion
The True Woman: A Series of Discourses, to Which Is Added Woman vs. Ballot
Fulton, Justin D. (Justin Dewey)
Husband and wife; Women -- Religious aspects -- Christianity; Women -- Suffrage
Her education must fit her for a home and for home work. Let a man
learn that he married a toy, a plaything, a lay figure, useful only
for the purposes of exhibiting his taste in jewelry and dress, who
desires to be petted and fondled, to be caressed and flattered, but
who is incapable of doing anything to contribute to his happiness at
home or to his influence abroad, and he comes to feel that she is
an encumbrance. If he clings to the old love, and cherishes the old
conviction, he learns to treat his wife as a plaything, and to forget
her as a helpmeet. He thinks of her as of a toy, which may be used or
cast aside at pleasure. She knows and feels the lack of his love. If
she becomes dissatisfied, and refuses to make the effort to become a
helpful wife and a loving companion, or to be influenced by the law
of charity; if she determines to seek happiness in obtaining the
admiration of others, which once unwittingly came from her husband;
then is she probably ruined, and becomes a "body of death" fastened to
one who looks forward to the grave as a refuge and a release, or who
finds in the society of other women that pleasure which is denied him
at home. Perhaps nothing is more disgusting than to see an empty brain
hidden behind a pretty face, or an empty heart concealed beneath
costly drapery. A woman who is handsome and is illiterate, who is
incapable of speaking entertainingly, is far more homely than a plain
face in front of a well cultivated intellect; and a plain dressed
woman, with a heart full of love, is to be preferred to a splendidly
dressed form which is destitute of soul. Jewels, laces, and silks are
not a fit dress for a corpse, and yet a heartless woman is to a man
who knows her as soulless as an inanimate body coffined for the tomb.
Having thus briefly considered the necessity of linking woman's work
and mission together, let us define her work, and consider what is her
mission.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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