Dr Brewer in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
says that frequently he who went to dig gold in Cali-
fornia, put to board in some neighbor's family his
wife and children, or, as it was sometimes termed,
turned them out to grass — hence grass-widow. This
definition is far-fetched. Originally the term signified
an unmarried mother; later, a wife separated from
her husband.
Just how far the absence of woman affected society it is difficult to determine. With her men are fools ; without ]ier devils. Man may be made better or worse by woman according to her quality. As a modest maiden and a true and loviniy wife, she is the toirest handiwork of the creator; as a splenetic moody demirep, she is the aptest instrument of the devil. As Dante, probably with his own termagant wife in view, groans " La fiera moglie piu ch'altro, mi nuoce." With the purity of her heart she may make all things pure ; under the counterfeits of love she may seduce by her charms, and doom to death by h<^r affection. Within a limited sphere every woman lias a Pandora's box which she may open if she chooses. Physically weaker than man, morally woman is greatly his superior. She is his superior as well iu the emotional part of her nature as in her finer sense of duty ; she is more self-sacrificing, has greater sen- sibility, is naturally more chaste, more tender, more compassionate, more forgiv?Tig; she excels in all pas- sive virtues, but in intellect, ethics, in courage, in the activities of life she falls behind her ruder companion.
Women feel rather than think; they are governed by impulse rather than by opinion. In an evenly bal- anced community they are less tempted than men, and therefore less given to criminality; but once fairly embarked in excesses, and they outstrip the most vicious men. The partner of man in his low estate as well as in his right living, woman cannot lift her- self much above the moral atmosphere which he makes for her. Hence it is that had it been possible
