We
send out spies, keep sentinels on duty, man our defences, carry arms in
our bosoms, which we cover with a buckler, though, with the policy of a
court, we conceal that in turn with a silken and embroidered vestment.
We watch every erring thought--we learn to be equivocal of speech; and
our very hearts, as the Indians phrase it, are taught to speak their
desires with a double tongue. We are perpetually on the lookout for
enemies and attack; we dread pitfalls and circumventions, and we feel
that every face which we encounter is a smiling deceit--every honeyed
word a blandishment meant to betray us. These are lessons which society,
as at present constituted, teaches of itself.
"With women the case is essentially different. They have few of these
influences to pervert and mislead. They have nothing to do in the
market-place--they are not candidates for place or power--they have not
the ambition which is always struggling for state and for self; but,
with a wisdom in this, that might avail us wonderfully in all other
respects, they are kept apart, as things for love and worship--domestic
divinities, whose true altar-place is the fireside; whose true sway is
over fond hearts, generous sensibilities, and immaculate honor.
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