REMARKS ON THE FIRST ERA.
tains, are lo her faith but mole-hills. And when the black cloud of fear fills the horizon, and he
listens for the thunder, she is looking upward for the rainbow.
Thus, though her physical strength and worldly knowledge be far inferior to man's, yet her firm trust in heaven, her faithful truth in love, her disinterested zeal in duty, win the palm of victory in conflicts that he abandons in despair.
The Bible history of woman clearly illustrates these important truths; showing that when the faith and resources of men have been utterly overwhelmed, then the salvation of the cause of improvement has been her work. Thus maternal love, faith and energy, preserved Moses to be the Law-Giver for the world ; made Samuel the High Priest of the Lord; seated Solomon on the throne of David. Each one of these events was of great and momentous import, not only to the destiny of the Hebrew nation, but to the progress of mankind. Deborah was the Deliverer of Israel when not a Hebrew man dared lift his hand in defence of his country till she led the way. Esther saved the Jews when no man could have stayed the decree of death. In short, from the time when the promised seed was reaffirmed to the descendants of Sarah, "a mother of nations," the Hebrew women kept the hope of " Shiloh" ever in their race. This divine faith, like a living light, passing from hand to hand, shines out in the characters of the Hebrew women from Sarah to Huldah the prophetess, who had the light of God's law when the high priest was in darkness. It is worthy, too, of note, that the Bible furnishes no record of an apostate Hebrew woman; while the Hebrew men could not be restrained from licentiousness, idolatry and apostasy.
Among the heathen nations, the mission of woman is less distinctly traced, because the revelation of the hope in motherhood was lost There was no "Shiloh," or Redeemer, expected. Still the feminine nature displayed its inherent tendencies, a spiritual feeling more refined, and a moral sense more delicate, than man's ; these constituted her insight, intuition or wisdom (call it which you will), which made her appreciate the true and the good with more readiness and more sympathy than man. If it were not so, why was the idea of woman invested with supreme wisdom and goodness? Why was she deified and worshipped for those higher attributes of human nature; Justice, as she was in Themis; Wisdom, in Minerva; and Chastity, or Virtue, in Diana?
We shall not, in our work, give the histories of the different goddesses (which properly belongs to mythology) ; though, undoubtedly, all were representations of real women, or of those qualities which the wisest of heathen men believed were types of female character; qualities more inherent or better developed in woman than in man.
But we would wish those who take an interest in our researches to examine carefully the character of each distinguished woman we here introduce by the standard suggested. Compare the conduct of the woman with that of the man of her own era and condition. Compare Cleopatra with Marc Antony. She was wicked ; but she was less selfish, less gross in her wickedness than he. She was true to her country and her people ; he was a traitor to the first, and a deserter of the last Patriotism was the highest virtue of the heathen mind. Which of these two persons showed the most patriotism? And which mind was the victor?
So, too, of Aspasia. She was the creature of the corrupt institutions which man, by his superior physical strength, sensuous passions and unjust laws, had imposed on social life. Yet degraded as she was, Pericles, the hero of the Athenians, was her slave; and Socrates, the wisest of the heathen sages, her admirer and friend. Thus the woman's spirit held sway over the subtle Greek! Aspasia was better than those she subdued. They had degraded humanity by degrading woman; thus compelling her to seek that influence by unholy means which should have been the right of every Athenian wife, namely, that of social equality and companionship with her husband.
In Rome, while the ideal of woman was the divinity which gave the priest oracles and the people laws, domestic purity was preserved. If the Sibyl and Egeria were only the fictions of artful men, yet that these men had recourse to the feminine spirit for their purest wisdom, shows their estimation of the female' mind. The Vestal virgins represented the highest attributes of heavenly good ness, Purity and Mercy. Nor was it till the Roman men were banded together and absent from their homes in their long wars, thus losing the softening, purifying influence of their mothers, wives and daughters, that the frightful demoralization of the nation was reached. For the first five hundred years not an instance of divorce occurred. While the wife was honoured, woman continued worthy of honour. When men repudiated their wives, as Cicero did his, for no fault but only to gratify his selfish propensities, and the multitude of divorces had created a virtual polygamy, in which the women participated, then the Roman Empire fell to rise no more. The Lucretias were the life of the Republic; the Messalinas, the death of the Empire. Yet the licentious example was set by the men;—they made the laws; and always the women were better than the men of their time.
