She pays the debt of life not by what she does, but by what
she suffers; by the pains of child-bearing and care for the child,
and by submission to her husband, to whom she should be a patient and
cheering companion. The keenest sorrows and joys are not for her, nor
is she called upon to display a great deal of strength. The current
of her life should be more gentle, peaceful and trivial than man's,
without being essentially happier or unhappier.
Women are directly fitted for acting as the nurses and teachers of
our early childhood by the fact that they are themselves childish,
frivolous and short-sighted; in a word, they are big children all
their life long--a kind of intermediate stage between the child and
the full-grown man, who is man in the strict sense of the word. See
how a girl will fondle a child for days together, dance with it and
sing to it; and then think what a man, with the best will in the
world, could do if he were put in her place.
With young girls Nature seems to have had in view what, in the
language of the drama, is called _a striking effect_; as for a few
years she dowers them with a wealth of beauty and is lavish in her
gift of charm, at the expense of all the rest of their life; so that
during those years they may capture the fantasy of some man to such a
degree that he is hurried away into undertaking the honorable care of
them, in some form or other, as long as they live--a step for which
there would not appear to be any sufficient warranty if reason only
directed his thoughts.
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