And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip, or touch one drop of it.
Woman's love is strong rooted, though occasionally rent up in a moment; her hatred is almost incurable. The mind of woman is most sublime; of man more profound. Man is required to prepare for the world, as the Athletæ did for the exercises. His duty is his life: for this he unites manners with mind, suppleness with power, as he well knows mere strength will not perform some of the greatest works. Man most embraces the whole; woman remarks individually, and takes more delight in selecting the minutiæ. Man receives a ray of light single; woman delights to view it through all its dazzling colours. She contemplates the rainbow as the promise of peace; he extends his inquiring eye over the whole horizon. Woman laughs; man smiles. Man seldom weeps, but when woman sighs:—
Sorrow, like a heavy hanging bell,
Once set in ringing, with its weight goes,
Then little strength rings out the doleful knell.
Woman is in anguish when man weeps, and in despair when he is in anguish; yet she has often more faith than man. Woman is formed to piety and religion. To her Christ first appeared; but he was obliged to prevent her from too ardently and too hastily embracing him. Woman is prompt to receive and seize novelty, and become its devotee.
It matters not that she from Heaven hath come.
Or, as Moore says:—
Alas! too well, too well they know
The pain, the penitence, the woe,
That passion brings down on the best,
The purest and the loveliest.
